The Princess and the Peasant
by Percy Son of Neptune
Summary: AU. Annabeth is a princess. Percy is a peasant. Or so he thinks. When he notices her during a swordfighting lesson, he can't help but feel awestruck. When she notices him on her vacation to Wales, she can't help but feel alone. When they finally meet, will love bloom? Or will life throw a curve in their paths? Follow Percabeth on their fight through angst and adversity.
1. Chapter 1

**HISTORICAL DISCLAIMER:**

**ALL HISTORICAL INFORMATION PRESENT IN THIS STORY MAY NOT BE HISTORICALLY ACCURATE. I DID NOT DO ANY RESEARCH FOR THIS STORY, SO IF SOMETHING ISN'T ACCURATE, PLEASE DO NOT INFORM ME ABOUT IT. I DO NOT CARE. PLEASE DO NOT WORRY IF SOMETHING ISN'T ACCURATE, JUST READ THE STORY FOR WHAT IT IS. THANK YOU.**

**Disclaimer: I'm not Rick Riordan, so Percabeth does not belong to me. The only thing that I own is the story and the additional characters.**

**Now here's The Princess and the Peasant, Chapter One. Enjoy!**

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Chapter One: Percy POV

After my father's death, we moved to the United Kingdom. Actually, it was still Wales back then, but within two years the UK was formed, and we were stuck in the state of Wales.

We moved to a small village around an hour away from the castle of Lord Ares, who ran the thirteenth district in the fifteen-district UK, and only one of two districts in Wales.

My mother set up a restaurant in the village and my sister Abigail and I helped her run it. We weren't rich enough to buy a separate house, so we cut off a corner of the restaurant as a sleeping area.

We scraped by. As my sister and I grew older we were able to help our mom more and the restaurant got more business. I worked other jobs throughout town and when I was thirteen I had finally saved up enough money to buy my dream horse.

I originally noticed him when I was nine years old. He was a pure black stallion and he could run like the wind. I immediately went home to my mom and told her about him. The next day, my mom and I went out and talked with the owner and made a deal. My mom put down a deposit and told me the day I had paid off her for the deposit and had enough money to pay off the rest of the price I could have him. The owner held him for me for those four years before I was able to pay for him.

I named him Blackjack and he became my home away from home. Every day before dawn I would take him out and let him run free.

My freedom was short-lived, however, because when I got back to the restaurant, I knew a hard day of work was ahead of me.

Abigail would always be waiting for me on the front step. She would give me a hug and tell me to get ready for the day.

I loved my sister more than the world. The world was cruel. It took our mom's parents in a house fire. It took our mom's sister when she was twelve. And it took our dad, a twenty-three year old guy who I have no recollection of whatsoever, just after Abigail was born, when I was barely one-and-a-half years old.

My mom always tells me that I look exactly like him. I have his messy black hair. His sea green eyes. His confidence. I like to tell her that I don't like thinking of myself as my father, but she would just smile at me with that misty look in her eyes and tell me that no matter how hard it was, I would always look like him.

If I looked like our dad, Abigail was a pure rendition of our mother. Her blue eyes shone like a clear autumn afternoon. Her long brown hair was stringed with strands of blonde and her smile could light up an entire room. I learned not to mention this to them though as it would set off another 'me-and-my-dad' comparison.

My mom found out she was pregnant with me when she was seventeen, and she married my dad less than a month later.

Five months after I was born, my mom became pregnant with Abigail. Ten months after that, Abigail was one month old when we got the news of our father's death and we immediately moved to Wales.

Life moved on. Our mom was able to cope with the help of us kids and life was livable.

Blackjack gave me a thrill once a day when we had our morning rides, but even that sometimes wasn't enough to counter the hardships of the restaurant.

For my thirteenth birthday, my mom presented me with my father's sword, which she had held in our locked chest ever since she had received it after his death.

"Keep it safe," she had said.

For the first time in my life, holding the sword gave me a real connection to my father. The sword was perfectly balanced and had a double-edged blade. The leather grip molded itself to my hand.

I was determined to get good with the sword. It was the only connection to my dad, and I wasn't about to let it go. Whenever there was a slow period during the day I would practice out back using the trees as opponents.

When I got Blackjack, I took my sword with us on our morning runs. I would make a small fire and practice my swordplay by firelight.

I was getting quicker with my strokes, but I couldn't tell if I had the right form or not.

I mean, I might have been getting quicker, but I knew that without the proper form I wasn't going to get any better.

That problem was solved around three weeks after I had gotten Blackjack when I received a letter from the castle.

Normally when we get mail (if ever), it's always addressed to our mom, but this one was clearly addressed to me. On the front of the envelope, in elegant handwriting, was my name, _Mr. Perseus Jackson_. I carefully opened the envelope and took out the letter from inside. When I opened and read the letter, I was surprised with what I saw.

The letter read,

_Dear Mr. Jackson,_

_ Let me first introduce myself. I am sure that you know who I am, but I would also like to let you know that I have been keeping tabs on you as well._

_ My name is Ares. I am one of the head swordmasters for the great King Frederick and currently the leader of your District 13._

_ I would like to make a preposition to you, although it would be better if we could talk in person. I have been made aware that you have recently purchased a horse. This would make travel between your place of residence and mine easy and unstressed._

_ I would very much appreciate it if you could accept my offer and join me for a day. Your decision could change both your life and mine._

_ Please let my messenger aware of your decision._

_ I look forward to meeting you._

_Lord Ares Warstriker_

It was signed underneath. I looked over at the messenger.

"What is it Perce?" My sister asked. I handed her the letter. She read it, along with our mom over her shoulder.

"I don't know, Percy," My mom said, sounding uncertain.

"Oh, come on Mom," Abby said. "We don't even know what he wants yet. I think he should go."

"It's not just that," our mom was saying, "I don't want him going alone."

"My lord said his sister could accompany him on the journey," the messenger said. I had forgotten he was there.

"Come on mom," I said. "Let me just see what he wants. It doesn't mean I have to accept his preposition."

She sighed. "Very well. You may go. I hope we have a slow day."

I turned to the messenger, a smile plastered on my face. "Tell Lord Ares he's got a meeting."

"Very well. I shall inform my lord of your arrival first thing tomorrow morning," the messenger replied.

My smile immediately turned into a frown. "Tomorrow?" I looked over at our mom. "Tomorrow's not going to work, I'm afraid. We can't just leave our mom here alone without getting supplies ready beforehand. It's going to have to be in two days."

"Very well," the messenger said again. "I shall inform my lord of your arrival at first light the day _after_ tomorrow."

"Thank you," our mother said. "It's very difficult to work around here without the help of these two."

"I can see if my lord could send one of the chef's assistants for the day," the messenger said.

"No, no that's-" Our mom started, but I cut in.

"That would be great." I turned to our mom. "You could use the extra help mom." I looked over at Abby, hoping she would get the idea.

"Yeah mom," she said. "And you might be able to learn something new, which could help the business." Our mom was silent. After a while, she spoke.

"Fine. You guys have convinced me." She turned towards the messenger. "I would appreciate it very much if Lord Ares could spare one of his assistants for the day."

"I'm sure my lord will oblige," the messenger replied. And with that he bowed and took his leave.

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The next two days passed by quickly. Before I knew it, Abby and I were on our way to the castle of Lord Ares, riding on the back of Blackjack.

After an hour of riding, the castle came into view.

The castle itself was massive. It probably could have fit a thousand of our mom's restaurants. The walls surrounding the castle were made of stone and rose thirty feet high. Six stone guard towers were spaced equally along the outside wall. The central part of the castle rose higher than the rest of the castle. Lord Ares most likely lived in that part of the castle and we would most likely meet him there.

A twenty-foot-wide moat surrounded the castle and a wooden drawbridge was lowered across it, which we crossed now.

Inside the walls, you could see several red banners that hung from the walls of the castle. In the middle of the banners was a picture of a boar, the symbol of Lord Ares.

A man of around twenty approached us as we entered through the gates. I recognized him as the messenger from the letter. A teenager of around sixteen or seventeen followed him.

"Lord Ares is expecting your arrival."

"What about Blackjack?" I asked.

"Brandon here will take care of him," the messenger replied, motioning to the guy behind him.

Abby and I dismounted and very wearily I handed Brandon the reins, but kept a hand on them.

"He will be well cared for. Brandon is one of our best handlers."

That quieted my fears. I let go of the reins.

While Brandon led Blackjack towards the stables, the messenger led Abby and I towards the central part of the castle. We walked through a set of massive wooden doors and up several flights of spiral stairs. I started counting around halfway and got to 724 before I gave up. The stairs were lit by torchlight and several small paintings were hung on the walls.

We eventually reached the top of the staircase and walked through another set of wooden doors which led into a long corridor. As we walked along the corridor, we passed several family paintings of the Warstriker family. Fancy couches lined the walls. When we reached the other end of the corridor and a final set of wooden doors, the messenger held up his hand.

"Wait here," he said. He walked in through the doors and Abby and I were alone.

"Ready, bro?" She asked.

"No," I admitted. She laughed. "Hey, you don't have anything to worry about. He doesn't want to talk to you."

"That's true," she conceded. "But I still have to meet him."

I was about to come up with a witty comeback when the doors opened, revealing the messenger.

"Lord Ares will take you now."

I looked towards Abby and took a deep breath.

And together we walked through the doors to meet with Lord Ares.

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**A/N:**

**No Percabeth yet guys, and I'm sorry about that, but we have to get the fluff out of the way. Chapter Four will give us our first insight into Percabeth. You guys can wait that long, right?**

**So, now for the question of the chapter. I'm going to post one of these every chapter, and it would be interesting to hear some of your answers.**

**Let's start off with an easy one first: Who is your favorite character in the PJO or HOO series and why?**

**I appreciate the answers.**

**Make sure you guys review!**

**Thanks!**

**-Percy Son of Neptune**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for all of the reviews, favorites and all of those other things you can do. I really appreciate it.**

**I had one interesting response to my question from last chapter: Octavian. *Mighty Ruler of Gummi Bears* if I may ask, why? I personally think he's a douche.**

**Anyway, enjoy the newest chapter! Here's Chapter Two, Annabeth style.**

**Disclaimer: I'm not Rick Riordan, so I do not own Annabeth or her mother. I only own Isabel and Rayne.**

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Chapter Two: Annabeth POV

It's hard being a princess. Don't get me wrong, it's a whole lot better than being one of those pesky peasants, but being a princess is hard work.

Every time you go out into public, you have to be all prim and proper. You have to dress up and look pretty or else people take notice. You always have to be on the lookout for potential rivals, and of course I'm always searching the crowd for some cute guys, even if they are peasants. There's always diplomatic work to be done, so I sometimes travel along with my father to the mainland to discuss treaties. But sometimes I get a break. I am allowed to venture out into the courtyard in plain clothing, rather than the massive dresses I sometimes have to wear. I check up on my horse and sometimes venture down to the swordfighting area of the castle to watch the trainees at work. Some of them are really cute, but I'm almost never allowed to talk with them. The only time I'm allowed to talk with any of the trainees is when there's a ball, and we almost never have any of those here at the castle. They're always somewhere else.

I was wandering around the courtyard one day when my personal assistant came up to me.

You see, my name is Annabeth Chase. I'm the only daughter of King Frederick I and Queen Athena of the United Kingdom and that makes me a royal princess and heir to the throne. My father was initially only the King of England, but in his first couple of years at the throne he was able to unite England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to form the UK. Now he has the greater, and much more impressive, title of King of the United Kingdom. My mother was a princess of Scotland and she fell in love with my dad on one of his yearly trips to Scotland. They married when my dad was twenty and she was nineteen and a year later I was born.

A month ago I had reached my seventeenth birthday and my mother insisted that I start to search for a 'partner' as she called it. What she really means is find someone who is capable enough of taking over a massive empire and has the will to govern it without having it collapse. So far, I'm 0 for 3 on the success scale.

As I was saying earlier, my personal assistant Isabel came up to me, presumably to take me to my mom to talk about my latest failure.

"Hey Isabel," I said.

"Your highness," she replied, while curtsying. I told her she didn't have to call me that, but she insisted. Isabel is seventeen just like me, but she is two months older than I am. She has lush brown hair and bright green eyes. We're the same height and she is always carrying a thin notebook, which says what I have to do that day, along with any notes people could have left me.

"My mom want to see me?" I asked.

"Yes, your highness."

I sighed and turned towards her. "Ok, enough with the 'your highness' business Isabel. I've told you enough times that you don't have to call me that."

"Ok, your highness." She realized her mistake too late.

"This is hard for you isn't it?"

"No, your-" She stopped. "No, miss Annabeth."

"Very well. Let's do it this way then," I said. "First off, just call me Annabeth, ok? The 'miss' part in front makes me feel old."

"Ok, you-" She stopped again. "Ok, Annabeth."

"Thank you. And secondly, how about this? You can keep calling me 'your highness' when I'm in public or in the courtyard, but you have to call me Annabeth when we're in private or within the castle. Does that sound good to you?"

"That sounds perfect Annabeth," she replied. I noticed for the first time that she didn't mess up my name.

"Excellent. Now let's go see what my dear mother has to say to me, huh?"

We walked through the castle. I knew the way by heart, so it didn't take very long to get there. I didn't even wait to knock on the doors. If my mother was meeting with someone, they would just have to wait.

Luckily, no one was in the room except for my mother, who jerked up at my sudden appearance.

"Oh Annabeth, it's only you," she said relieved. "Please sit."

I took a seat in one of the comfy chairs opposite my mother. Isabel stood behind me. My mom was reading one of the newer books from our library. 'The History of the Scottish Monarchs' I read from the cover.

She finished a page and put the book aside.

We sat there for around a minute before I got annoyed.

"What do you want mom?" I asked.

"I wanted to talk with you of course. Didn't Isabel tell you this?"

"Why yes she did. But that doesn't explain why we just sat there for a whole minute staring at each other. I _was_ doing things before you told me to come here."

"Like what? Trying to find someone or just staring at the guys who you thought were cute?" She asked innocently.

"Well, if I could talk with them I might be able to do both at once," I shot back at her.

She brushed my answer aside with a wave of her hand. "Well, that isn't what I brought you here to talk about anyway."

My eyebrow shot up in a questioning look. "Well, what did you bring me here to talk about then?"

"You remember Princess Rayne, right? The daughter of Lord Ares?"

"Well of course I remember her," I said. "We always hung out when we were little."

"Yes, of course," my mother replied. "Well, she turns twenty this week and Lord Ares is having a huge party to celebrate in ten days. As you are aware-"

"She's turning twenty? I didn't realize she was three years older than me," I said surprised.

"Yeah, I didn't realize it either," my mother replied in the same tone. "Anyway, as I was saying, you are aware that in ten days your father and I are going to be in France discussing the treaty, are you not?"

"Yes, mother," I replied in a bored tone. They were discussing some boring trading treaty, so I decided not to go with them.

"Well, your father and I believe that there should be some sort of royal presence at this party, and since we will both be unavailable, we think that you should go. You could stay there for a week, get caught up with Rayne and attend the party. Think of it as a little vacation."

My eyes must have lit up because my mother smiled. A week with Rayne? That would be amazing. Rayne was like an older sister to me after all.

"Plus," my mom was saying, "we have heard some rumors that her boyfriend is going to propose to her and I think she would appreciate another girl there to help her plan out her wedding."

"Rayne's getting married?" I asked.

"No, no, it's not official yet, my dear. As I said, they're only rumors. But it would be a perfect time to propose, don't you think?"

"Oh, most definitely," I said, a huge smile on my face.

"So, will you go?" My mother asked.

"Of course I will!" I practically yelled. I got out of my chair and bounced around the room like a little girl. I turned back to my mother. "When do I leave?"

Isabel was trying not to laugh. My mother looked over at her and gave a smile.

"Two days."

"Really?" I said, disappointed. I wanted to leave right away.

"Oh, you can wait that long Annabeth."

"Plus, you need time to pack," Isabel added.

"Yes, very good point, Isabel," my mother said. She paused a second before resuming. "Isabel, I would also very much appreciate it if you could go along with her. You two are very close."

"My-my lady?" Isabel asked, surprised.

I didn't wait for my mom's answer. I tackled Isabel in a hug. "You're coming with me to Wales!" I screamed like a little girl. "I can't wait to introduce you to Rayne!" She hugged me back and we danced around in circles.

"Now, ladies," my mother said, while trying to contain her laughter, "we have logistical matters to discuss."

"Ugh, I hate logistical matters," I said. Isabel gave me a smile.

"I know you do, Annabeth, but they're important."

"I know mom," I replied.

"Ok. Now, you will leave two days from now and stay until two days after the party," she read from a piece of paper where she had written notes. "On the morning of the third day after the party, you will come home. Lord Ares has already picked out the rooms for you. With Isabel included, there will be thirteen in your party. You two, one of the diplomatic servicewomen and ten armed soldiers who will be your escort."

"Do we really need ten, mom?"

"Yes," she said firmly. "It's a long journey, and your father and I have agreed not to take the risk. You will be travelling with ten soldiers."

I sighed. I guess I wasn't going to win this argument.

"Ok, anything else?" I asked.

"No, that's about it. You may take your horse and of course you will have your dagger."

"I can take Starry?" I asked. My mother nodded her head. "Anything else?"

"No," she replied. "You should start packing as soon as possible." We turned to head out the door. "And Annabeth?" I turned back around. "Take Isabel to the boutique and get her a royal dress." She looked at Isabel. "If she's travelling with the royal princess, she should look royal, should she not?"

"A-a royal dress?" Isabel asked.

"Yes, get any one you want. Annabeth will cover the price. Just make sure that it isn't better than Annabeth's dress. We can't have the princess be outdone, can we?"

"Well, of course not, my lady," Isabel replied swiftly.

"Mom," I asked, "if she happens to find one that she really likes and its better than mine-"

"You have my permission to buy a new dress," she replied simply.

"Nice." I turned to Isabel. "Come on. Let's get packed a little and then head on down to the boutique."

"Ok," she replied. "Let's go."

"And ladies, one last thing," my mother said. "Don't pack everything up completely, because I'll come up and check to make sure that you have everything you need tomorrow night before you leave in the morning."

"Ok, thanks mom."

"Thanks Queen Athena."

And with that we headed out the door.

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**A/N:**

**So, how did you guys like it? We're starting to get into the flow of things now.**

**Here's the question of the chapter: If Percy were to compete in the Olympics, what sport (other than swimming, fencing, or any of the canoe/kayak races) would he compete in? I would say boxing, because he would have the speed and agility to compete there. Give me interesting answers and I might give you a reply in Chapter Three.**

**Make sure you guys review!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm amazed by you guys. Not a single one of you said anything about Percy and Annabeth's difference in age. He's thirteen and she's seventeen. That's four years! Four freaking years! Well, it looks like this story isn't going to work out. Oh well.**

**But wait! Maybe Chapter Three can bring a solution to this catastrophic incident. I guess you'll just have to read it to find out.**

**Well, here's Chapter Three. It's longer than Chapters One and Two combined. Isn't that sweet?**

**Now read on, my readers, and enjoy Chapter Three of The Princess and the Peasant!**

**Disclaimer: I'm not Rick Riordan, so stop asking me. I don't own Percy, his mom, or Ares. But I do own Abby, Rayne and the plot.**

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Chapter Three: Percy POV

Abby and I walked through the massive doors and I had to catch my breath. The room we walked into was much bigger than I thought it would be from the outside. Most of the other three walls were covered from the floor to the ceiling with bookshelves and all of them were filled. There had to be thousands of books in this one room. A golden glass chandelier was located in the center of the room and you could see into every corner. On our left and right sides, where the bookcases ended, were two normal-sized wooden doors, which I assumed led back to Lord Ares' personal rooms.

In front of me was a mahogany wood desk of around ten feet long. It was covered with different sorts of papers and a stack of books was in the one corner. Several quills and papyrus were stacked in the opposite corner.

Behind the desk sat a man of around forty years old. He had short black hair and hard brown eyes. He was very well built, as was to be expected if he was a master swordsman. To his right sat a young girl of around sixteen years old, who I assumed was his daughter. She had his hard brown eyes, but had long curly brown hair instead of black. She wore a light blue dress.

"So, you're Perseus Jackson," the man said. "Please, take a seat." He pointed to two seats in front of the desk. Abby and I sat.

"My name is Ares and this is my daughter Rayne." He pointed to the girl sitting next to him. "We have a preposition for each of you."

"For each of us?" I asked. "But the letter said you only wanted to talk with me."

"Yes, I am aware of that. But the extra day gave me a chance to talk with Rayne and she decided on her own preposition, should your sister accept it." I looked over to Abby and she was stupefied. I was about to speak when Lord Ares continued, "I know that you will have to talk with your mother, and I have arranged another day next week for you two to return here with your decisions. Now, first, we will start with you, Perseus."

"Um, not to sound picky Lord Ares, but could you call me Percy? Perseus is, uh, too awkward."

"I can do that Percy," he replied.

"Oh, and Abigail goes by Abby," I added quickly.

"That's nice to know." But it wasn't Ares that replied. His daughter, Rayne, did. She flashed the two of us a perfect smile.

"Ok, uh, you can continue now," I said.

"Very well," Lord Ares said. "My preposition. I understand that you have received your father's sword, correct?"

"Yeah," I replied.

"And you know I am one of King Frederick's best swordmasters?" He posed it as a question.

"Well of course I do, Lord Ares." I had a sense of where this was going and I wasn't sure whether I liked it or not.

"Perfect." He paused for several seconds before resuming. "Your father was an excellent swordsman."

"You knew our dad?" Abby asked.

"I did not know him personally, but I knew of him," Lord Ares said. "Unfortunate to fall in battle, that man was. Would have been my pick to win the Championships had he been eligible."

"Eligible?" I asked.

"He wasn't a knight. You must either be of royal blood or have knighthood to fight in the Championships."

Now, everyone knew about the Championships. They were the yearly event held in London. Every district in the UK would send one representative to fight and the King would make it even by choosing the sixteenth representative. The chosen sixteen would then be separated into four groups of four and then each participant would duel the other three in his group in a round robin format. The top two of each group would then move on to the final 8 and the knockout stage. There, if you won you moved on, but if you lost you were out. The winner of the competition then battled the reigning champ for the United Kingdom's spot in the World Championships. To attain the position of reigning champ, however, you had to defeat the current reigning champ. Just winning the Championships did not automatically give you that position.

I noticed Lord Ares was expecting an answer.

"Oh. So what does that have to do with me, then?" I asked.

"As you probably know, parents transfer their genes to their offspring."

"So you're saying what, exactly?"

"I believe that you have inherited your father's talent with the sword. My offer to you is this: Allow me some of your time from your daily life and I will personally teach you the art of swordfighting."

I was speechless. Did he really just say that? He would personally teach me, a peasant boy who can barely get by in life, the art that he masters in just because of my dad? It didn't sound right.

"I'll-I'll have to think about it," I managed. Abby was giving me a curious look. I turned away from her.

"Very well. Like I said earlier, you two can come back in a week with your decisions. Now, Rayne are you ready?"

"Yes dad."

"Then continue."

"Ok," she started. "Abby, I'm not going to sugarcoat this like my dad did for your brother, so I'm just going to ask you plain and simple. First off, though, I need to ask you something."

"Anything," Abby replied. Rayne smiled at this.

"How old are you?" That threw Abby completely off. I almost laughed at her expression.

"Uh, I just turned twelve a couple of weeks ago. Why?"

"I just needed to know the differences in our ages. You're just under four years younger than me. I turn sixteen in three months."

"Oh, ok then."

Rayne smiled. "Now to _my_ preposition. My last assistant just moved to Spain and I need a new one. Will you become my new assistant?"

"Uh," Abby said. She looked stunned and probably felt the same way I had when I got my preposition.

"I don't know," she said eventually.

"That's fine. Like my dad said, you have a week to talk about it with your mom."

Mom. Now that got both of us out of our shock.

I looked over at Abby and we locked eyes. We came to a silent agreement. There's no way we could leave our mother.

We were about to speak up when Lord Ares cut in.

"Don't make your decision now. When you get home, you may find that your mother received a preposition of her own. You should talk with her before you make your choice."

"Ok, uh thanks, Lord Ares," I said.

"No problem," he replied. Abby and I got up to leave. "Don't leave yet," he continued. "Have lunch with us. What kind of host would I be if I invited you to my home and didn't feed you? Please, stay and dine."

So Abby and I stayed and ate with Lord Ares and his daughter. After an hour of dining, with great food by the way, I collected Blackjack from the stables and Abby and I made our way home.

When we got back to the restaurant at around four in the afternoon, the two assistants were still there. That's right, _two_ assistants. We walked in and the two assistants, a guy and a girl of around twenty-three, were sharing a laugh with our mother as they served the diners.

We stood in the doorway for around fifteen seconds before our mom noticed us. She ran over to us and was about to give each of us a hug when she noticed that she had a plate in each hand.

"I'll be right back," she said. Our mother quickly headed over to a table on the far side of the restaurant and served the food to the people who were sitting there. A minute later, she was back in front of us giving us each a hug.

"I didn't think you two were supposed to be back so soon," she said.

"I didn't think you were supposed to have two assistants," Abby replied.

"I don't know. That was a surprise to me. Anyway, how was your trip? Is there any reason why you're home early?"

"We didn't stay there for long. We just got our prepositions, had lunch with Lord Ares and then made our way back home," I said. I noticed that when I said 'preposition_s_' our mom's smile faded, but a second later it returned.

"So you two enjoyed your trip, I'm assuming?" Our mom asked. I looked at Abby.

"I wouldn't say 'enjoyed' it, but it was quite interesting," Abby said.

"Yeah, interesting is the right word," I added. "Anyway, so we heard that you got a preposition of your own mom."

"Not now," she replied. "Wait until after the assistants leave. They told me that they'll leave after the dinner surge."

"Ok, well can we ask about the assistants then?" Abby asked. "Did you learn anything new from them?"

"Oh, I learned a lot from these two. I think there's going to be five or six new choices on the menu starting next week," our mom said with a glint in her eye.

"That's awesome," I said. "So do you like the assistants?"

"Yes, I do very much," she replied. "They still have a lot to learn, but the cooks at the castle do know some interesting recipes."

"That's great mom," Abby said.

"Yeah, I know." Our mom paused. "Now just because you two got home earlier than expected does not mean you get the day off. Now get ready and help with these diners."

Abby and I raced back to our personal area of the restaurant and changed our clothes into ones more reasonable for the restaurant. After two hours of work, the last people from dinner walked out the door. Soon after that, the assistants thanked our mom for the experience, took their leave and headed back to the castle.

We probably had around an hour before the late nighters came in. Mom told us that two or three musicians were coming in that night, so we should have a little more business tonight.

We sat at the bar. Abby and I on one side, our mom on the other. We explained the prepositions that we each had received, how I was offered to become Lord Ares' personal trainee, and how Abby was offered to become his daughter's personal assistant.

"That's amazing. Those are incredible offers for both of you," our mom said.

"There's no way we could take them though. We would be leaving you alone," I said. "We were about to decline the offers when he said to take a week to think about them."

"About that," our mom said. "When the assistants came, they gave me my own letter from Lord Ares. It explained your situations, and-well, you should just read it."

She handed me a letter. Abby looked over my shoulder as I opened it.

It read,

_Dear Miss Sally Jackson,_

_ If you are reading this letter, then my cook's assistants have successfully delivered it, for which I am grateful to them._

_ As you know, your children are enjoying my hospitality today at my castle and I thank you for allowing them the ability to travel to talk with me._

_ In any case, the extra day in-between my offer and their visit gave me time to talk with my daughter and she has decided on her own preposition for your daughter Abigail. Of course I still have my own preposition for your son, and now I am giving my own preposition to you._

_ Should your children accept our offers, they would spend most of their time here at the castle. As to the specifics of their offers, I leave that to them to talk to you about those._

_ Continuing on with what I was saying, since they would be spending most of their time here at the castle, I would 1) allow them one day of the week to have off to return to you and stay in touch. I would not take them away from you completely. I would also 2) provide you with four of your own personal assistants from the castle to serve as your personal staff. I would give you one of my senior members and three of the newer members, in hope that you could train them in your trade._

_ Also, to compensate for the loss of your children for most of the year, I would send some of my greatest builders to build your family a separate house behind the restaurant for you to live in. That way you could expand your restaurant and hopefully become known as one of the better restaurants in the region._

_ The four assistants would, upon your approval of them, stay with you in the house located behind the restaurant._

_ Finally, I understand that in eight days there is a holiday celebrating the unification of the United Kingdom. I would very much appreciate it if you could travel to my castle along with your children to inform me of your decisions._

_ Until then,_

_Lord Ares Warstriker_

Again it was signed at the bottom.

"That's amazing," I said. "That's even better than our offers, mom."

"Yeah, you should definitely take up his offer mom," Abby said.

"Well my choice depends on your guys' choices," she replied.

"Well now that you got your own deal, I'm-" I said. My mom cut me off.

"Not now," she said. "Make your decisions tomorrow. We have people coming in."

I turned around. Sure enough, people were starting to walk through the door of the restaurant. I hadn't realized how much time had passed, we had talked for so long.

The night passed quickly. The three musicians that came were excellent and business was very good that night. Apparently word spread pretty fast about the musicians, because every seat in the room was filled and several people were standing. Abby and I were constantly running around serving people, so we didn't have any time to talk with each other.

After two-and-a-half hours of playing, the musicians finally called it a night, packed up their stuff and headed out the door. The listeners trickled out after them. Eventually, an hour later, everyone had finally left the restaurant and mom locked the door and turned the sign to 'closed.'

I was so tired from all of the running around I had to do that night that I just got ready for bed and hit the sheets. I saw Abby had the same idea as me. She was already lying in bed. We came to a silent agreement to talk the next day and I climbed in next to her and fell asleep almost immediately.

* * *

You see, that was four years ago. Abby and I both accepted our offers and basically moved into the castle. As promised, Lord Ares and his daughter gave each of us a single day off per week and we went home to our mother.

Our mom accepted her offer as well, and within a month we had a new home. Our mom was able to expand the restaurant to include the area where we used to live and business boomed.

Within seven months, and with the help of her new assistants, our mom's business became known as one of the best in the region, if not the best. The King even visited once a year ago. Unfortunately for Abby and I, it wasn't on our day off, so we didn't get to see him.

Abby became Princess Rayne's personal assistant and they became best friends. Rayne took her everywhere, including, much to my dismay, France. I didn't really think it was fair that my sister got to travel to the mainland before I did, but I dealt with it.

Lord Ares taught me the proper way to fight with a sword. He corrected my form and increased my quickness. He taught me several new moves and several old tricks. Within two years, I was easily the best swordsman in the district, even at fifteen years old. However, I still could not compete in the Championships because of my ancestry. It wasn't until I was seventeen, two months before the Championships that year, when that all changed.

It was our day off. Abby and I were riding home from the castle on our own horses since Abby had gotten one from the castle when she was thirteen. She named the foal Scarlet because of her red hair. We talked about our day, about Rayne's twentieth birthday party, which was coming up in two weeks, and what we thought was going to be made for dinner. Before we knew it, we had reached the restaurant.

Our mom greeted us at the door. There was no one else in the restaurant other than the four assistants and us.

Our mom asked us how our week was, like usual. Abby had a pretty eventful week as Rayne's party was going to be pretty big. Apparently the royal princess was scheduled to attend. She was good friends with Rayne when they were little.

Unlike Abby, my week was pretty uneventful, other than the fact that I had to help choose who to send to the Championships. The decision had to be made within the next couple of days, even though the competition wasn't for another two-and-a-half months. I mentioned to my mom that I was disappointed not to be participating. She got this glint in her eye and I knew something was about to happen.

"There might be something I can do about that," she said mysteriously. "Follow me."

I looked over at Abby, surprised. She gave me a look that clearly said, 'What is going on?' I shrugged and got up to follow our mom. Abby followed me.

Our mom walked out the back door of the restaurant and towards the house, which was two-storied and could house up to ten people.

We walked up to the second floor and into a room I recognized as our mom's. She walked up to the chest that had held my father's sword, the same one I still use, and unlocked it using a key that I hadn't noticed before.

Inside the chest was only one item, a scroll. Our mother took it out carefully and handed it to me.

"Mom, what is this?" I asked as I started to unroll the scroll.

I had barely unrolled it before she replied.

"That," she said, "is your family tree."

I immediately stopped what I was doing and looked up at our mother.

"Go on, open it," she said.

I carefully unrolled the parchment until it was fully unfurled. I tried to decipher what I was looking at and found out that I couldn't. There were several paintings of men and women with several lines connecting some of them to each other. There were words on the parchment, but when I tried to read them I found that I couldn't. Then I realized that the words weren't even English.

"It's in German," I said suddenly.

"Ja, es ist in Deutsch schrieben," my mother replied. **(Translation: Yes, it's written in German.)**

"You can speak German?" I asked incredulously.

"Of course I can. Your father could too. He had to."

"What do you mean?" Abby asked.

"Your father and I can speak German because we are German," she said. "And so are you."

I was thrown off completely. I could tell Abby was too. I had always thought we were English. I mean, I knew we had moved to Wales when Abby and I were young, but I had always assumed it was from England, since we grew up speaking English.

"So what are you saying exactly?" I said once I had recovered.

"You two are much more than just English peasants, my dears. Well, actually you aren't even English." Our mom laughed at the thought.

"So, we're German peasants then?" Abby inquired.

"Why do you have to assume we're peasants? Here, let me explain this scroll, and then everything might make sense." She pointed at the scroll. "Let's start at the top, shall we?" She pointed to the man at the top of the tree. "This is your great-great-great grandfather King Bjorn V of Germany. Then you have his son King Wilhelm II and his grandson King Jason I." She pointed at each of them in turn. "Then you have your grandfather King Wilhelm III of Germany. Then you have his oldest son, King Zeus I, who is the current King of Germany." She pointed to the first man in the final row. "Finally, you have his two brothers, Prince Hades and the youngest brother, Prince Poseidon, who was your father."

Now that shocked me even more than when she told us that we were German. Our dad was a prince? That's absurd. He couldn't have been a prince, but then again, I didn't know anything about him, so he could have been anything. Then a thought occurred to me.

"Wait, since dad was a prince, what does that make Abby and I?" I asked.

"You two are a prince and princess of the German Empire," our mom replied.

Abby practically fainted. I had to catch her before she hit her head on the bed.

I thought that was it, but our mom kept going.

"And that isn't just a regular prince and princess like Rayne. You two are a royal prince and royal princess of the German Empire." She gave Abby and I a smile. I had my arms wrapped tightly around my sister's shoulders, worried that she would actually pass out, but she didn't. "That's not all," our mother said. "Until King Zeus' second son reaches the ruling age of fifteen, Percy, you are third in line to be the King of Deutschland."

* * *

I must have blacked out or something, because when I woke up, I didn't remember anything after my mom telling me that I had a chance for the throne.

Abby was sitting in a chair next to me. I was lying in my bed in the room that we shared.

I looked around the room. My sword and scabbard were lying on my desk in the corner of the room. The scroll was lying rolled up next to the sword.

I turned to Abby.

"What happened?" I asked.

"You fainted bro," she replied.

I thought for a while, but I didn't know what to say, so I settled with, "Well, shit."

Abby cracked a smile. "See? You're going to be fine."

"Where's mom?" I asked.

"She had to go back to the restaurant. Some people had started to drift in for lunch," Abby replied. "But she told me to tell you that you better win the Championships now, or she's going to disown you."

"What?" I asked.

"Bro, you're in. You got the royal blood requirement to enter now," Abby told me.

"Sweet," I said. Then a thought occurred to me. "I have to tell Lord Ares about this!" I got up to get my sword and bag ready.

"Perce!" Abby yelled. When I ignored her, she yelled again. "Percy!"

I turned towards her. "What?"

"It's our day off. You can tell Lord Ares tomorrow. Plus, mom wants to talk to you about it later. Now come on, let's go get something to eat." She grabbed my arm and pulled me out the door. I grabbed my sword and attached it back on my belt. I never went anywhere without it. I followed Abby back to the restaurant.

We ate lunch quickly and once most of the lunch crowd had left our mom came over and sat at our table.

"Hey, nice to see you back up and running," she told me.

"Well, that was quite a shocker you gave me mom," I replied.

"Yeah, but you believe me, right?" I nodded my head. "Ok, that's good. I'm going to have to write a letter to your Uncle Zeus and see if he can get an official painting of nobility produced so you can show Lord Ares."

"How long will that take?" I asked. "Because the choice needs to be made by the end of the week."

Our mom frowned. "It won't be done by then, but you can show Lord Ares the scroll to get your place and then officially claim your spot when we get the painting."

"So, what?" I asked. "I just take the scroll with me to the castle tomorrow and show him?"

"No, I can't let you do that," our mom replied. "It's the only copy I have and I can't risk losing it. You're going to have to get him to come here and then we'll show it to him."

"Ok," I said. "I can do that."

The next day went by quickly. I explained to Lord Ares about my ancestry in private, as my mom wanted to keep it a secret. He followed me home that night and I showed him the scroll, which he was intrigued about. When he asked me about keeping it a secret, I told him that I knew it would get out eventually, but I was hoping it wouldn't be until the Championships, where I knew it would get out once I was in the finals, as the two finalists had to have someone introduce them before the final fight.

"_When_ you get to the finals?" He had asked.

"Yeah," I replied confidently. "My mom told me that I had to win or she would disown me. The only way to win is to get to the finals."

Lord Ares had cracked a smile at that and told me I was the representative for District 13, but only if I came through with the painting of nobility when my mom received it from King Zeus.

Lord Ares and I shared a terrific meal at the restaurant and then we returned back to the castle as he had a party to plan and I had training to do.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Yay! So Percy and Annabeth are the same age! The story can go on!**

**But, they're German? And they're not peasants? Oh no! Can you say drama?**

**Now for the Question of the Chapter: What is your favorite country in Europe and why?**

**My top two are Austria and Germany, but that's only because I've visited them before. I'd have to go with Austria on this one, since I had an awesome time playing soccer there.**

**In other news, my website is up! Check it out on my profile. It's all about my fanfiction stories and it gives an insight into me as a person. You should totally check it out.**

**Also, if you want to check out how I separated the districts for the UK, check out the Photos section of my website. It should be there.**

**Make sure you guys review!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	4. Chapter 4

**Wow, you guys must really hate Europe. I only got one review for that last question. This next one's a little easier to answer though than the last one.**

**Ok, here we go. First glance at Percabeth in this chapter. Hope you guys enjoy it!**

**Now here's Chapter Four of The Princess and the Peasant.**

**Disclaimer: Really? You know what, I'm not even going to say it.**

* * *

Chapter Four: Annabeth POV

I had taken Isabel to the castle's boutique and got her a 'royal' dress, which was incredible. It was a deep purple strapless dress that reached her ankles with a billowy white portion going down each side starting at her hips. She got matching purple heels and a purple headband to wear in her hair. Plain and simple, she was going to look absolutely amazing.

Isabel had outdone me with her dress, so I bought one of my own, which was gorgeous. It was a sky gray dress that came down to my knees and had two thin straps that went over my shoulders. When I had put in on and twirled in front of a mirror, the dress had sparkled and shimmered, which I thought added a lot to the dress. Like Isabel, I had bought matching gray heels and a thin gray headband to put in my hair. It wasn't until after I had bought the dress that Isabel pointed out that it was the same color as my eyes.

Isabel and I headed back to the castle with our new dresses and we continued to pack. Before I knew it, two days had passed and Isabel and I were on our way to Wales, along with our diplomat and our ten armed guards.

The trip to Wales took two days, so when we arrived at Lord Ares' castle in Caemarfon, all thirteen of us were tired and weary, but like I said before, I _am_ the royal princess, so I had to act like I was completely fine, which I wasn't.

All the weariness washed away though when Rayne came out, looking beautiful as always, being only six days shy of her twentieth birthday. She wore a dark green dress, and with her long brown hair it made her look like an upside-down tree, brown on top and green on the bottom.

We ran up to each other after I had dismounted Starry and we shared a long hug, but not before she curtsied quickly.

"Rayne!" I said, ignoring the curtsy. "I've missed you so much!"

"I know," she replied. "When I heard you were coming, I freaked out, literally, which scared Abby here." She motioned to a girl of around sixteen years old. She had long brown hair with some strands of blonde in them, and bright blue eyes. She wore a short pale green dress that complemented her eyes nicely.

"Really?" I said, turning my attention back to Rayne. "I basically flipped out in my own right and when I leaned that Isabel was coming along with me, I went crazy." I put my arm around Isabel's shoulders.

"So Isabel's your assistant, I'm assuming?" Rayne asked.

"Yeah, Abby yours?" Rayne nodded.

"Come on ladies, let's head back to my room and we can talk." When Isabel turned to get my things, I pulled her back.

"Come on Isabel," I said. "The servants will get our stuff. Like my mom said, if you're traveling with me, you should look royal, and carrying other peoples' things isn't royal." I pulled her along with me as we climbed the stairs to Rayne's room. Abby followed us.

When we were all settled in Rayne's room, I addressed Abby.

"So, Abby, right?" I asked.

"Yes, my lady," she replied.

"Wow, you've got her well trained Rayne." I laughed. "Abby, there's no need to call me 'my lady,' 'your highness,' or any of those other names, ok? Just call me Annabeth. We're all informal here, and if I'm going to be here for over a week, we should get to know each other as friends, don't you think?"

"Sure Annabeth," she replied with a smile. I noticed that she adjusted a lot quicker than Isabel did. I looked over at Isabel and saw that she seemed to recognize this too. She gave me a smile.

"Thank you Abby," I said, turning my attention back to the sixteen-year-old. "Now if you don't mind it, could I ask you some questions? It could help me get to know you and then you can ask me some, ok?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"Ok, so first question is about family. Any brothers or sisters? What do your parents do? You know," I said, "anything interesting you want to tell me."

"Ok, well I have one brother that's seventeen-" She started.

"And extremely cute, by the way," Rayne told me. "He's going to be competing in the Championships this year. I'll have to point him out to you."

"If he's cute, you better. Or you might not reach your twentieth birthday," I said menacingly. Rayne and I glared at each other for a couple of seconds before we shared a laugh. I turned back to Abby. "Please continue Abby."

"Uh, well my mom owns a restaurant in Nefyn. It's pretty popular. I think your dad visited there once."

"Really? That's pretty cool. What about your dad?"

I immediately knew I had asked a bad question. Her face dropped and Rayne put an arm around her shoulder. She looked like she was about to cry.

"Hey, you ok?" Rayne asked her.

"Yeah, I'm-I'm fine."

"Sorry, you don't have to answer if you don't want to," I said.

"No, it's fine. My dad died when he was twenty-three. He was killed in battle. I was only a month old."

"I'm really sorry to hear that Abby."

"It's ok. Thanks anyway."

We continued to talk for the rest of the night. I learned a lot about Abby. Her favorite color is sea green like the ocean and she loves swimming. She loves tasting different types of food and she is always one of the first people to try her mom's new recipes. She doesn't have a boyfriend, but there were several guys her age in the castle that she was interested in. Her best friend is her brother and she doesn't know how her life would have changed if he wasn't in her life. She moved to Nefyn right after her dad died and she has lived there ever since.

Abby asked me several questions.

'How old are you?' _17_, I replied. 'How long have you known Rayne?' _Ever since I was a baby. _'Favorite color?' _Gray._ 'Favorite time of the year?' This was a good one. _May,_ I said. _That's when the Championships were held in London, and I got to see all of the cute guys._

The most interesting question she had though had to be, "Favorite country you have visited on the mainland?"

"France," I said.

"Not Germany?" She replied. That was interesting.

"I've never been to Germany."

"Oh."

"Why?" I asked her.

"No reason," she replied and then she asked me another question, so I wasn't able to ask her about it.

We kept asking each other questions for a long time and eventually Lord Ares came into the room.

He bowed to me. I stood up, as I was sitting on Rayne's bed talking, and curtsied back to him.

"Your highness." He turned to Isabel, who had also stood at his arrival. "Lady Isabel."

"My lord," we replied in unison.

"I would like to inform you ladies that your belongings are in your room now," he said.

"Thank you Lord Ares," I replied.

"You are very welcome, my lady." He turned to Rayne. "I am assuming that you will give the two of them a tour of the castle, Rayne?"

"Of course I will dad," Rayne replied. "We were just about to head out."

"Very well. I have training right now with Percy, but we should be able to be done for dinner."

"Ok dad. That sounds good."

"I will meet you then. Very nice to see you again Annabeth."

"Thanks. I'm glad to be here." Lord Ares bowed once more and then left the room.

"Ugh, why does he have to be so formal?" Rayne asked.

"He has to make sure I send a good report back to my dad. You know that Rayne."

"Yeah, but it's still annoying," she replied. "Come on, let's give you two a tour."

Abby and Rayne gave Isabel and I the tour of the castle. They started out in our room, which was incredible, even if it wasn't as big as my room back in London.

Two four-poster beds lined each of the back corners. They had curtains that could be closed when you slept and each bed had six or seven pillows. We had our own personal bath in the room, so we didn't have to worry about sharing it with anyone else. The smaller anteroom just outside of the main room was also quite impressive. An elderly lady of around fifty sat behind an oak desk. Rayne told me she would be our 'secretary' for our stay. I learned that the lady's name was Sharon. She was extremely nice and I took a liking to her almost immediately. A small couch sat opposite of Sharon's desk and a large painting of Rayne's grandfather hung above the couch.

Abby and Rayne led us outside into a long corridor. The corridor itself was pretty plain, as was almost every other corridor in the castle, Rayne told me. The only thing in the corridor other than the occasional painting was a red ribbon which ran along the top of the wall from one end of the corridor to the other.

We continued to tour the castle. Rayne showed us her father's study, which was quite impressive. I wondered if I could borrow some of those books that were on the shelves and read them during my stay. Abby showed us her room, which she shared with her brother. It was pretty obvious whose side was whose. We moved onto the dining hall, which was big, but not nearly as large as the one back in London. Rayne informed me that I would join her on the head table, which she pointed out to me. Isabel would have to be separated from me, though, since she didn't have an important title. Abby informed her that she could sit with her table, that is, if she could handle sitting with her annoying brother.

"Hey, if he's cute, why does it matter?" Isabel had said. Every one of us laughed except for Abby.

"Ha ha," she had said sarcastically. "Come on, let's keep moving."

We got private access into Lord Ares' war council room, which was empty because there wasn't a war going on at the time. It was still pretty cool, even though there was only a long table and several chairs in the room.

We moved outside of the castle. Rayne showed us the stables and I was reunited with Starry, albeit it for only five minutes. We moved on to the other places. The archery range. The metalworking section of the castle. The barracks. But finally we moved onto the swordfighting arena, which was one of my favorite spots back in London.

When we reached the arena, we were on the portion that ran around the top of the arena, just above the top row. It took me a second to realize, but I noticed that the arena must be built into the ground, since the top row was at ground level.

"I see you've noticed the specialty of this arena," Rayne told me. "When my father was named leader of District 13, one of the first things he had done was install this arena. It's dug out seventy feet deep and it's always packed when we have an event here. Since it's under ground level, the sounds of the duel and the cheering reverberate around the arena and create an intense atmosphere. I've been to several events, and they all blew my mind away. It was actually at an event that I met my boyfriend."

"Really?" I said. "I didn't know that."

"Yeah," Rayne replied. "He didn't win the event, as he lost in the semis." A thought seemed to occur to her. "Actually, I think it was to your brother, Abby."

"Probably," she said. "He beats everyone."

"Yeah, what's his record? Isn't it something crazy?" Rayne asked.

"243-4," Abby said automatically. "But it's 176-0 since he turned fifteen two-and-a-half years ago."

"That's insane," I said.

"Yeah, but the people here aren't that good. I don't think a guy from 13 has made it out of his group in the Championships in forty years."

"But still, that's impressive."

"Well, we'll find out in May if he's actually any good."

The four of us turned our attention to the floor of the arena, where six or seven guys were gathered around an older guy who I recognized as Rayne's father. He seemed to be telling the group something. After around twenty seconds, the group separated and each of the guys went a different way. One guy stayed in the center. When I caught a glimpse of him, my heart skipped a beat. He looked to be around my age, maybe seventeen or eighteen. He was tall, maybe six foot or so. While all of the other guys wore armor, he only wore a cut off shirt, which showed his strong, tan arms. His long black hair was messy, but it still looked absolutely adorable.

Just then, the six other guys in the group drew their swords and attacked the guy in pairs. Flawlessly, the black-haired guy drew his own sword and took down each of the attackers with ease, using only one or two strokes on each attacker. An overhand cut here. A thrust there. Parry an attack and then return a deadly backhand. He would disarm each attacker and then turn to the next one. The attacker would then retrieve his sword from the ground and return to the outside of the circle. There, he would wait for an opening and then attack again. This went on for around five minutes. I noticed that the guy in the center was only fighting defensively, but within the minute that changed. This time, when they were disarmed, the attackers returned to the outside of the arena and formed a line. Once the last attacker was disarmed, I saw Lord Ares speak one word to the defender and he went on the offensive. He parried the first attack and then swung an arcing overhand cut at the attacker-turned-defender. He was insanely quick. I now saw why the other guys were wearing armor. The attacker was attacking so quick, the defenders barely had time to get their blade up if they could at all. Most of the time, the defender would be too slow in reacting to the attacks that he would just get pounded on his armor. And when they were able to react quick enough to the attacks, the power behind the attack was so great, the defender would just crumple under the impact. The clash of the swords could be heard the whole way at the top of the arena, where we were standing.

Within a minute, all six of the defenders were disarmed and were trying to recover from the blows they had just received. After he cut down the last defender, the single attacker turned towards Lord Ares and flung his hair out of his eyes, like all guys do. He was about to sheath his sword when he noticed the four of us at the top of the arena. I swear he looked right at me. My heart skipped another beat. He was extremely cute.

I locked eyes with him. We stood there, eyes locked onto each other's for around fifteen seconds before Rayne noticed my staring.

"Uh, oh," she said. "Looks like someone has found a crush." Both Abby's and Isabel's heads snapped over to me.

I immediately broke contact with the cute guy and blushed. I looked down at my feet.

"No, I'm not-" I mumbled, trying to get them to stop.

"Annabeth's in love!" Isabel said in a sing-song voice. I tried to glare at her, but I couldn't stop blushing. Abby gave me a small smile, enjoying my situation, but it wasn't as big as Rayne's or Isabel's.

"Oh, we definitely have to hook you two up," Rayne said. She turned towards Abby. "When's your brother available?"

"I'm not sure. I'll have to talk with him at dinner."

"Wait," I said. "That's your brother?"

"Yeah, didn't think you would fall in love with him, did you now?" Rayne said playfully.

"I'm not in love," I mumbled to them.

"But you do have a huge crush," Isabel added. "Rayne did say he was extremely cute didn't she?"

"Yeah, but-"

"You didn't expect him to be that cute, huh?" Rayne said.

"No, it's just that-"

"You're in love." Rayne finished.

"Stop it!" I yelled. I blushed even more. I was sure I was beet red by now. The three of them shared a laugh, including Abby. I blushed again.

"Come on," Abby said. "Let's let my brother finish training. We can hook you two up later."

The three of them led me back to Rayne's room, something that I was grateful for, but I was sure more torture was to come before dinner.

* * *

**A/N:**

**So, how did you guys like it? Chapter 5 is up on Thursday.**

**Now, Question of the Chapter: What is your favorite chapter out of all of the PJO and HOO books and why?**

**I'll give you my top three: 1) I Have A Dam Problem - Chapter 14 Titan's Curse, 2) I Am Dumped - Chapter 22 Last Olympian, 3) I Set Myself on Fire - Chapter 11 Battle of the Labyrinth. Ok, now why? 1) It's just absolutely hilarious. I laugh everytime. 2) Do I really need to say this? Percy and Annabeth get together, obviously. 3) This one, it's because of their first kiss. That's what really sets this one apart for me.**

**Ok, now make sure you review (and give me answers)!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	5. Chapter 5

**Great job you guys. I got a lot more answers to the question this time. Keep it up.**

**Ok, there's not that much else to say, so enjoy Chapter 5.**

**Here's Chapter Five of The Princess and the Peasant.**

**Disclaimer: No. Just no.**

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Chapter Five: Percy POV

Today was amazing, at least it was supposed to be amazing. It was six days before Rayne's party, and the royal princess was supposed to be arriving that day, so Lord Ares let me sleep in. Abby still had to get up early, since Rayne would be one of the first ones to meet the royal princess. Abby left our room at around dawn and I was looking forward to getting another two or three hours of sleep, but that wasn't to be the case. Twenty minutes later, I woke up to a vicious knocking on my door. I opened it to reveal my best friend, Grover Underwood. Actually, second best friend, behind my sister. Grover is a couple of months older than me and he has curly brown hair. He's sort of short, but that doesn't really stop him from pulling me around the castle, like he was this morning.

"Come on man, we're meeting in Ashton's room. Be there in five minutes." And with that he rushed out the door.

I sighed and got ready. Ten minutes later, I was knocking on Ashton's door. Immediately, Grover opened it, pulled me inside and closed the door quickly behind me.

"Whoa man, what was that for?" I said once I had recovered.

"Percy, nice of you to join us." But it wasn't Grover that answered. It was Ashton, the guy whose room I had just been pulled into. Ashton was twenty-one years old and had short brown hair that was spiked in the front like a fauxhawk. He had soft brown eyes and was well built. He was known as the second-best swordsman in the thirteenth district. And did I mention that he was Rayne's boyfriend and that he planned on proposing to her at her twentieth birthday party? No? Well now you know. Just don't tell anyone. It's a secret.

"Hey Ash, how's-" I stopped short, because I noticed that there were five other guys in the room, who I also recognized as the guys who I trained with.

"Take a seat Percy. We have important matters to discuss."

I knew where this was headed. I took a seat and the eight of us talked for around an hour.

About what, you ask. Well, I won't give you the specifics, but we planned out how we were going to get Rayne to Ashton for him to propose to her. It was a pretty simple plan, but it was still going to be amazing. I would make my proposal better, but his was still pretty cool. I still won't give you details, but I will give you one spoiler. I'm going to be the last guy who talks with Rayne before Ashton proposes. I thought that was pretty cool.

After we were done talking, the eight of us headed down to lunch and shared a table. After lunch I headed back to my room and got changed for training, putting on what I normally wore under my armor; a gray sleeveless shirt and some athletic shorts. I attached my sword back to my belt.

I made my way down to the arena, heading in through the side door that I normally go through. When I got to the changing room, I was the last one to arrive, as I had the farthest distance to walk. Lord Ares was already there, and the other six guys already had their armor on.

"Go on guys," I said. "I'll meet you out there." I turned to get my armor.

"Percy, you won't need that today," Lord Ares said.

"My armor?" I asked. "Then why are the other guys dressed in their armor?"

"Because they'll actually need it. You'll be fine without yours."

"Uh, ok," I said.

The seven of us and Lord Ares walked out of the changing room and into the arena. I personally think the design on the arena is genius. I always loved fighting in the arena.

We warmed up for around fifteen minutes, each of us trading blows with a partner at a slow speed. Eventually, Lord Ares called us back in.

"Ok, now that you're all warmed up, we can get into the real training. Let's start with a defensive one Percy. Start with the circle exercise."

"Won't that be dangerous without armor?" I asked.

"You'll be fine," he replied with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Uh, ok."

With that, Lord Ares stepped off to the side and the other six guys surrounded me in a ten-foot-wide circle.

The six of them drew their swords and Ashton and Adam charged me.

I gave them a second before I drew my own sword. I was told to play defensive, so I only focused on stopping their strokes. Eventually, though, I couldn't help myself and I returned a couple of strokes and decided to disarm them.

It was Ashton's second rotation when Lord Ares noticed that he was going a little easy on me, trying not to get through my defenses and cut me.

"Come on Ashton! Hit him!" Lord Ares yelled. "I may have given you permission to marry my daughter, but I didn't give you permission to take it easy on my trainee!"

Ashton's strokes got quicker after that. I fought defensively for another five or six minutes before I noticed that there wasn't a circle around me anymore. I disarmed the last guy, who happened to be Oliver, and then turned to the line that was now in front of me.

Lord Ares gave me a single order, "Attack."

I smiled. This was the part of training that I loved more than anything, although it was always shorter than the defensive portion.

When I was younger, I had always wondered why, but then I figured it out. I was so much quicker than the rest of the trainees that I had always defeated them within a couple of seconds.

Another prime example of this was training this afternoon.

First in the line was Ashton, like always. He was the toughest of the trainees that I faced, but I still was able to beat him in ten seconds. He attacked me first and I parried the overhand cut. I sent a thrust at him, which he barely deflected and I continued on with an overhand cut of my own. This one was too fast for him, and my sword crashed against his armor. Before he was able to react, I withdrew my sword and send a backhand cut at his other side. This attack also crashed against his armor and Ashton dropped to a knee. I hit his sword out of his hand and moved onto the next person in line, Elliot. I quickly beat him and then finished off the other four guys. Once the last one was disarmed, I turned to Lord Ares and shook the hair out of my eyes. That's when I noticed the four girls standing at the top of the arena. I recognized the first two as Rayne and my sister. The third girl looked to be around seventeen although she might have been sixteen. She had long brown hair and was wearing a simple white dress. It wasn't until I looked at the final girl in the group of four that I was really awestruck. The fourth girl was beautiful. She looked like she was my age, probably a couple of months younger. She had curly golden blonde hair that fell to her shoulders and she wore a pale blue dress that looked absolutely amazing. I locked eyes with her for around fifteen seconds before Ashton clasped me on my shoulder.

"Aiming high, I see," he said.

By this time, the rest of the guys had recovered and were now staring in the same direction I was.

I finally broke eye contact with the girl and turned towards Ashton.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"What do I mean?" Ashton laughed. "Perce, do you know who that girl is that you're checking out?"

"I wasn't checking her out," I said.

"Oh, so you just decided to stare at her for thirty seconds?" Ashton asked.

I was about to answer him when Lord Ares came over to us.

"What's going on here?" He asked.

"Percy's checking out a new girl," Ashton explained. "And not just any new girl." He pointed at the cute blonde.

Lord Ares turned and looked where Ashton was pointing.

"Don't tell me it's the blonde," he said.

"Of course it's the blonde. Only Percy would choose to aim that high."

"Hold on," I said. "You still haven't told me who this person is yet."

"Don't you know?" Lord Ares asked. "Doesn't every guy your age want to marry the royal princess?"

I stopped. "Wait, what?"

"The royal princess. Doesn't every guy your age want to marry her?"

"That's the royal princess?" I asked.

"Yeah, now let's get moving. We have training to do."

I looked back up at the royal princess one more time before turning my attention back to the arena.

_I definitely need to talk with that girl,_ I thought before I drew my sword and focused back on getting ready for the Championships.

After three hours of hard training, which kept my mind off of the princess, I headed back to my room to get a shower and get changed for dinner. Abby wasn't back yet, so I took a long shower. When I got out, however, Abby was sitting on the bed waiting for me to get out of the shower. It looked like she had been waiting for a long time.

"Hey sis," I said coolly, even though it looked like she was pissed. "How are you doing?"

"Get out of here, bro," she replied angrily. "I've been waiting for a half-hour for you to get out of the shower and I know you had to of been in there for longer than that."

"Jeez, sorry sis," I said sarcastically.

She muttered something that sounded like 'boys' and trudged past me into the bathroom.

"Nice talking with you sis," I said. She turned around and slammed the door in my face.

I turned back around and laughed. I changed clothes and waited for my sister to get out of the shower so we could head down to dinner.

She came out of the bathroom thirty minutes later fully dressed and we headed down to the dining hall.

On the way down, she told me something that I wasn't aware of.

"Hey, Ares tell you that you have to be formally announced yet?"

"What?" I asked her.

"You know, for the Championships. The participant from each district has to be announced at a big event, so you're going to kick off Rayne's party this weekend. Apparently you have to give some sort of speech or something."

"What? I'm already giving one speech and now I have another one?"

"Wait, you're giving another speech?" She said surprised. "Why?"

"Uh, no reason." I almost gave away Ashton's plan.

"What's the speech about?"

"Nothing," I said a little too quickly.

"Well, it's a little more than 'nothing' if you're making such a big deal about it. Now tell me what it's about."

"It's a secret. I can't have you ruin the surprise, ok?"

"Well, who's it for?" Abby asked.

"I can't tell you that. Maybe it's for you. Maybe it's for Lord Ares. Or maybe it's for the royal princess, hmm? Now stop bugging me about it."

"It better not be for me. I would have to kill you if you called me out in front of everyone."

"Ok, fine," I said. "It's not for you, but I still won't tell you who it's for. You would definitely ruin the surprise."

"Fine," Abby replied. "But you should definitely talk with Lord Ares about it."

"Yeah. Thanks for telling me sis."

"You're welcome, Percy." Abby paused. "Hey, are you doing anything tonight?"

By this time we had reached the dining hall. Abby and I walked over to our usual table and we sat down before I answered her.

"Uh, why?"

"I want you to meet someone."

"Uh, I don't know. I should probably go see Lord Ares tonight, because if I do have to make a speech, I want to start preparing as early as possible, you know? And I think I'm doing something with Ash and the guys tonight, so I don't think I can meet this person. Maybe tomorrow?"

"Oh, ok," Abby replied. "That's fine. Oh look, there's Isabel and Annabeth." I recognized Annabeth as the princess's name. Abby motioned over in their direction. The royal princess stayed by Rayne's side, but the other girl made her way over to our table. I recognized her as the third girl from the arena.

"Hey Abby," the girl said.

"Hey Isabel. This is my brother, Percy."

I held out my hand. "Nice to meet you Isabel." She shook my hand.

"No, the pleasure's all mine," she replied with a smile as she took a seat next to Abby.

The four other people who usually sat at our table arrived and they each took a seat. Oliver and his two sisters, Chloe and Kaylee, who were both nineteen and very attractive, joined us, along with Grover, who sat to my left. Oliver sat to the left of Grover, and then his two sisters, Isabel, and finally Abby ended the circle.

The seven of us had barely sat down and acknowledged each other when Lord Ares rose and tapped on his wine glass. The dining hall fell into complete silence. All eyes were on Lord Ares.

"Citizens of Caemarfon, I am very pleased to announce that we have a royal member in our presence." A small cheer arose from the crowd. "Annabeth would you please stand?" The royal princess stood. "This is your Royal Princess Annabeth. I expect you all to treat her like royalty and better than you have ever treated me."

"So, instead of treating her bad, we should treat her somewhat bad," I said to my table. Oliver and Grover were the only ones who laughed. It didn't seem like the girls liked my joke. They all had frowns on their faces. Hey, it was only a joke.

"I heard that Percy," Lord Ares said in front of everyone.

I quickly wiped the smug look off my face and turned towards him. I answered him with a straight look on my face.

"You heard what, my lord?" I asked innocently. Oliver and Grover were trying to hide their smirks.

"You know what I heard. I could very well take away your representation."

_Ooh, he had to play that card_, I thought.

"And do what with it, my lord?" I asked. "Have District 13 be humiliated at the Championships again this year? I'm sure our reputation is just excellent there. You can just ask the royal princess. I'm sure she's heard quite a lot of excellent things about our district. Haven't you, my lady?"

"I've heard worse about you," she replied. I sat up in my chair.

First off, I hadn't expected her to respond to my question. And secondly for her to respond that quickly in that sort of tone, I knew I was dealing with someone who had a lot of confidence.

"Really?" I answered her. "Please do inform me. I would be pleased to know what people say about me in London."

Now she looked surprised at my answer. I don't think she expected me to respond in the way I did. She was about to respond when Lord Ares cut in.

"Very well," he said quickly. I think he could tell he was losing the attention he should have had. Everyone's attention was focused between me and the head table. "Now, Percy, we're here to welcome the princess, not send any more rumors back to London. Now please apologize."

Now that was interesting. I didn't really know why I was apologizing, but I did so anyway.

"My dearest apologies, my lady. I wasn't aware my lord was going to threaten me in the way he did. That is no way to welcome you to Caemarfon. If you would like, I would be pleased to give you a tour of the castle grounds later on after dinner."

"Thank you for your offer, but I have already received a tour of the grounds. Maybe I can take up your offer of kindness sometime later in my stay."

"As you wish, my lady." I had already known she had gotten a tour, but I knew the normal citizens did not. That offer did not only look good for me and the princess, but it gave Lord Ares a chance to get back on track.

"Thank you, Percy." He turned to the princess. "Welcome to Caemarfon. Now would you like to say anything, or shall I open dinner?"

"Please continue Lord Ares. I'm sure everyone here is starving and if I made a speech, everyone would not be happy. Please open dinner."

"Very well." He turned back to the dinner contingent. "Dinner is now open!" A cheer arose from the crowd.

A multitude of servants came filing out from the kitchen piled with trays of food. They served the royal princess first, and then the rest of the head table. They made their way through the rest of the tables once the head table was completely served.

The seven of us ate in silence for the beginning portion of dinner. Isabel finally broke the silence after around ten minutes.

"So Percy, are you going to get in trouble for that?" She asked.

"That? Nah. He'll kill me in training tomorrow, but I won't get in trouble."

"Oh, ok. So how do you like the training? You know, getting ready for the Championships and whatnot?"

"Oh the training's fun. Not all that much different than my normal training in fact. Just a little more each day."

"So how much do you do normally in a day?"

"It's normally around two or three hours, right Oliver?" He nodded his head.

"Yeah, but if you really piss him off, we might go four," Oliver said. "And those are the fun sessions, since we just get to pound on you for four hours."

"Oh yeah, real fun," I said sarcastically.

"Isn't that kind of harsh though? I mean four hours is a lot of training," Isabel said.

"Not really," I replied. "When we go four hours, about half the time Lord Ares just spends yelling at me. I find it quite amusing actually."

"I don't think you'll find it amusing tomorrow," Oliver said. "You really seemed to piss him off tonight. I think he'll be extra mad tomorrow."

"Eh, he'll be fine tomorrow. I have to see him tonight anyways. He'll rat me out then."

"Why do you have to see him tonight?" Oliver asked, a questioning look on his face.

"Abby was telling me that I have to be announced or something at a major event, so Ares is going to do it at the beginning of Rayne's party. Apparently I might have to make a speech, so I'm checking to see if I have to or not."

"If you have to, good luck man. Two in one night would be very difficult."

"Yeah, I know."

We continued to talk for the rest of dinner. Eventually, people were starting to walk out and Lord Ares had left, so I excused myself from the table and made my way up to Lord Ares' study.

Once there, Lord Ares made me wait twenty minutes before he came out into the study.

"Percy," he said. "What do I owe this visit to?" He seemed relatively calm, given what I had done at dinner that night.

"My sister was telling me that I have to be formally announced as the participant for the Championships and she said you were going to do it at the beginning of your daughter's party."

"Yeah, and?" He said.

"Well, my sister also said that I had to do a speech as well. Do you know anything about that?"

"No, you don't have to do a speech," he replied. "Where did she get that information?"

"I don't know. I was assuming it was from Rayne, because she told me when we were walking down to dinner."

"That's interesting. I'll have to check with Rayne about that. But no, you don't have to do any sort of speech."

"Ok, thanks Lord Ares."

"No problem Percy," he said. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"No, that was it."

"Ok, I will see you bright and early tomorrow morning."

"I am looking forward to it, my lord."

I turned and headed out the door, but not before Lord Ares said one last thing.

"Oh, and by the way Percy," he said. "You're going to die in training tomorrow."

I gulped and headed out the door. Maybe looking forward to training was a bad idea.

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**A/N:**

**Gulp. I hope Percy will be ok.**

**The party's the next chapter! I'm looking forward to it. It'll be posted on Monday.**

**Tuesday features the debut of my new story, The Big Three. The summary's kind of long, so I just put it on my website. Look for it there. The link is on my profile.**

**Now, Question of the Chapter: Would you rather be rich and unknown or poor and famous? I know those two don't really go together, but stick with me here. This is a difficult one. I would rather be rich, because I could have money and still have an opportunity to be happy as well.**

**Give me your answers.**

**Make sure you review!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	6. Chapter 6

**Great job guys. I got a lot of answers to the last question. Keep it up.**

**Ok, we get into the party in this chapter and I don't think you guys will like me at the end.**

**Anyway, here's Chapter Six of The Princess and the Peasant.**

**Disclaimer: I'm still in high school.**

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Chapter Six: Annabeth POV

Ok, I'll admit it. Abby's brother surprised me at dinner. He showed such confidence at dinner when he talked to Lord Ares and then me, I'll admit I was a little impressed. And when he asked me on that tour, when he knew I had already had one, just to make the situation look good? That was also creative thinking. And I won't deny that I was tempted to say yes just to get some personal time with him. Hey, my mom told me to enjoy myself. I consider hanging out with cute guys enjoying myself.

Apparently a musician was set to perform an hour after dinner, so Isabel and I quickly went up to our room and we changed into different clothing more suitable for the nightlife. Abby had told me that I couldn't meet her brother that night, so the four of us decided to listen to the musician.

He was very good. I was very impressed, and we get a lot of musicians that perform at our castle in London. I would say he was one of the best. I decided I better show my approval, so I took four or five gold coins from my bag and walked up to his instrument case, where a pile of coins was lining the bottom of the case. Not many gold, but hey, I could spare four or five from my stash.

You could tell he was surprised, because when I walked up with the gold in the middle of one of his songs, he faltered so badly his instrument went out of tune.

He recovered quickly though and gave me a smile. "Thank you, my lady," he said.

I flashed him a smile and returned to my seat. The musician retuned his instrument and then continued his song. After an hour of his playing, I got tired, so I left the dining hall, but not before giving him another gold coin and a note that read, 'Please consider coming and playing at London. I'm sure my father would be very pleased to have you.' I signed it underneath. He flashed me another smile but continued his song without a hitch.

When Isabel and I got back to our room, I immediately got ready for bed and fell asleep.

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The next several days passed by quickly and before I knew it, it was the day of Rayne's party and her twentieth birthday. I got Isabel up before dawn, and we collected Abby and raced over to Rayne's room. We knocked on her door so hard, I was sure it was going to fall off, but Rayne opened it before it could.

I tackled her in a hug.

"Happy birthday!" I yelled.

Surprised, she returned the hug and said, "Thanks Annabeth!" She gave Isabel and Abby each a hug and we moved into Rayne's bedroom.

"So, you ready for the party yet?" I asked.

"Yeah, I can't wait," Rayne replied.

"We can't either. When does it start again?"

"It's going to start right before dinner. That's when dad's going to intro Percy."

Percy. Abby's extremely cute brother. I had learned his name two days ago and now I couldn't get it out of my head. I was really hoping he would ask me to dance tonight. I hadn't gotten to talk with him at all yet, because he had always been busy. If he asked me to dance tonight, it would be the perfect time to get to know him.

"Ok," Abby said. "So that means we have around nine hours to get ready. Should we eat now, or should we wait and eat a late breakfast/early lunch sort of thing?"

"Well, unless you want the food that's on its way to get cold, we should eat now."

"You already ordered food?" Abby asked surprised.

"I _have_ done this before. Plus, it's for my best friend, so I'm going to make everything unstressed. We eat now and then have a quick lunch in a couple of hours before we get ready."

"Ok." There was a knock on the door. I went and opened it and three servants came in with enough food for four people. The servants left and the four of us ate an excellent breakfast.

Lord Ares came in during our breakfast and wished his daughter a happy birthday. He looked at me and I told him that I had everything covered, so he shouldn't worry about his daughter until after the party. He thanked me for that and then took his leave.

Fifteen minutes later, we had finished breakfast when Rayne's boyfriend Ashton came in. The two of them shared a hug and a kiss and he sat down next to her on the bed.

"Happy birthday Rayne," he said.

"Thanks Ash."

"You ready for tonight?" He asked.

"Yeah, I can't wait."

"I know what you mean. It should be pretty awesome."

He stayed and talked with us for another thirty minutes before he said he had to leave and help train Percy for one last short session before the party. Rayne gave him a kiss goodbye and he left the room.

Several other people came into Rayne's room to wish her a happy birthday including her mom and her cousin, who had just arrived in the morning. Rayne walked off with her to help her get situated in her room before the party and the two of them returned an hour later.

Rayne's cousin's name was Rosalyn. She had short black hair and bright green eyes. She was eighteen years old and around the same height as I was.

We had a couple pieces of bread left over from our breakfast which Rosalyn happily ate. She told us that she hadn't gotten to eat anything this morning as she was excited to see her cousin. We told her our plan to eat a quick lunch in two hours and then get ready for the party, which she happily agreed to.

The five of us continued to talk for the next two hours and then we headed down to the dining hall to get a quick lunch. After lunch, we all headed back up to our rooms and got our dresses that we were going to wear that night. Fifteen minutes later, we were all back in Rayne's room.

"Ok, so Annabeth, you can go last, since you're the royal princess," Rosalyn started.

"No," I cut in. "I'll go second-to-last, but Rayne should be the one to go last, since it's her party."

"Fine." She turned to Abby and Isabel. "Which one of you is going first?"

"Why won't you go first?" Abby asked.

"I don't want to go first. Now which one of you is going?"

"Why don't we just go in reverse age order?" Rayne suggested. "Abby, you go first, then Isabel, then you Rosalyn. Annabeth and I will go last."

"That sounds great," I added. "We're wasting time with you guys arguing."

"Fine," Abby said. "Make the little one go first."

"Abby-" I started.

"I'm just kidding. Let's get this over with." She made her way into the bathroom.

An hour-and-a-half later the five of us all had our make-up on. In the same order that we had put on the make-up, we each walked into the bathroom alone to change into our dresses.

Abby's dress was pure sea green like the ocean. It was strapless and came down to her knees. She had white heels and a small pearl necklace that went around her neck.

Of course I already knew what Isabel's dress looked like, but seeing it again when she had make-up on made her look gorgeous.

Rosalyn's dress was red and once you hit her waist, where a thin black rope acted as a belt, the dress faded from red to white slowly. It looked really cool. She also had white heels.

I went in and put on my dress. It fit perfectly and I felt absolutely amazing. The gray heels and headband only added to my amazingness. I had let my curly hair stay down, so the headband actually performed the role it was supposed to, which was keeping my hair out of my eyes.

Rayne was the last one to head into the bathroom. When she came out, I caught my breath. Rayne had a pure orange strapless dress that came to the middle of her thighs. She added an orange necklace and orange earrings along with her orange heels. She looked amazing. All of the orange perfectly balanced out her brown eyes and brown hair, which was pulled up into a bun.

"Rayne, you look amazing!" I said, while I gave her a quick hug.

"Thanks. You too!" She returned the hug.

"We all look amazing," I said, looking at each of our dresses. I checked the time. We had around twenty minutes before the start of the party. "Come on, we might as well be a little early."

"You guys go ahead," Rayne said. "I have to wait for Percy. We're supposed to be the last ones into the party."

"Should we wait with you?" I asked.

"What she means," Isabel said, "is 'Can we wait with you?' because she wants to see Abby's brother again."

I blushed.

"No, sorry Annabeth. You're going to have to wait to see the love of your life a little longer. The two of us are supposed to be the last ones into the dining hall." I blushed again.

"Ok, that's fine. We'll see you down there," I said.

"What she means-" Isabel said.

"Oh, shut up Isabel!" I yelled at her and walked out of the room.

As I left, I heard Isabel laugh and say to Rayne, "We'll see you down there."

Rosalyn, Abby, Isabel and I made our way down to the dining hall where I was met with a completely different arrangement than what it was for lunch. Where the head table used to be was now cleared out and a single circular table that seats four was over to one side. A red carpet ran down the center of the dining hall leading right up to the central stairs of the raised stage, where the head table used to be. All of the rest of the tables had been taken out and replaced with bigger circular tables, which could seat ten people, rather than the usual seven. These tables were spread out in the front of the dining hall, closest to the stage, with a few others that lined the walls, leaving a huge space in the middle for a dance floor. All in all, the tables looked like they made a big 'U' when looked at from the stage.

When we walked in, one of the servants approached us.

"You may choose any table that is available, my ladies, except for the table on the main stage. That table is reserved for the birthday girl and her family."

"Thank you," I said. I turned to my friends. "So, does front and center sound good to you ladies?"

"That sounds terrific," Rosalyn said. Abby and Isabel agreed.

Since we were one of the first to get to the dining hall we had the choice of seats, so we chose the table to the right of the red carpet right in the center of the stage. People started to filter in, looking nice and formal. Oliver and his sisters Chloe and Kaylee joined us, but once Oliver saw that he was the only guy, he left and went to join his fellow trainees at a different table. Two other young girls nervously asked if they could join us. They looked to be around thirteen or fourteen and they were clearly twins. They both had brown hair and blue eyes and they wore matching green dresses.

"You may join us," I said. "This is the fun table anyway, isn't it girls?"

The five other girls agreed and the two young teenagers took a seat next to each other.

"So, what are your names?" I asked the two of them.

"I'm Emily and this is Riley," the girl on the right said nervously.

"Nice to meet you two. My name is Annabeth," I replied.

The girl on the left, Riley, all of a sudden turned into a bundle of energy.

"Annabeth?" She asked in awe. "Like the princess Annabeth?"

"The one and only," I said with a laugh.

"I've always wanted to meet you." She turned to her sister. "We have to tell our mom about this."

"Tell your mom, huh? Do you guys live here in the castle?"

"No," Emily replied. "We live in Nefyn. You know, where Percy's from."

I took a glance towards Abby. She wasn't really enjoying the fact that Nefyn was the town where _Percy _was from.

"And what about Percy's sister? She's from Nefyn too, you know."

"Yeah, it would be cool to meet her too," Emily said.

Abby was about to cut in, when Riley kept talking.

"But, you know. It's just that Percy's so cute," she said.

I laughed. "And her sister isn't cute?"

"No, it isn't that," Riley said. "She's really cute. If I met her I would tell her that."

"Well, why don't you tell her now?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" I turned towards Abby.

"Abby, why don't you explain?"

"Abby? Wait, she's here?"

"Sitting at the same table you are," Abby said with a smile.

Riley got so excited, she got out of her chair and ran halfway around the table to give Abby a hug. The other five of us laughed.

"Don't worry about her, Abby," Emily said. "My sister's weird."

We all laughed again.

The eight of us continued to talk until a servant came up onto the stage. He waited until everyone got quiet before speaking.

"I am pleased to announce the arrival of Lord Ares Warstriker and his wife, Lady Allyson." He bowed and walked off the stage.

The doors at the back of the dining hall opened and the two of them walked arm-in-arm down the red carpet and up onto the stage. While they walked, everyone in the crowd stood and clapped.

Lord Ares was wearing a black suit with a red tie. He had red dress shoes on and his sword hung at his side. He wore a solid red cape. His wife, Lady Allyson, complemented him nicely. She had a red dress that reached her ankles and faded from red to black halfway through. Her blonde hair was down and they both had huge smiles on their faces.

Once they had taken a seat at the table on the stage, the servant walked back onto the stage. Once the crowd had quieted and taken a seat, he spoke again.

"And now, I am pleased to announce the arrival of District 13's representative for the Championships in London, Percy Jackson, and the girl everyone has been waiting to see, the daughter of Lord Ares and Lady Allyson, Princess Rayne Warstriker."

I think the cheering was louder for these two. Percy and Rayne also got a standing ovation and they too walked arm-in-arm down the red carpet.

When they walked in, I focused more on Percy, since I had already seen Rayne's dress. Percy wasn't wearing a suit like Lord Ares. Instead he was wearing a sea green collared shirt that matched his sister's dress. He wore white dress pants and white dress shoes. He wore a black and silver cape that hung off his one shoulder. His hair was somewhat combed, but it was still messy. His sword hung by his side.

Percy walked Rayne up to her parents and gave her a final hug before she sat down. Percy made his way back to the center of the stage, where he stood alone.

The cheering slowly quieted down until it was just a low murmur. Someone sitting at a table from the left side of the stage yelled, "Speech!" and everyone laughed.

Once the laughter had died down, Percy finally spoke.

"First off, I would like to wish the birthday girl a happy birthday. Let's all hope in twenty years she'll have her own husband to make this speech for her fortieth birthday, so I don't have to keep on embarrassing myself." Everyone laughed. "In all seriousness though, happy birthday Rayne. Twenty is a big number, and we all wish you many more than twenty in the coming years." Everyone clapped. When the applause died, Percy continued, "Now I was told to come up here and do two things. One, announce that I am officially the representative in this year's Championships for District 13 and two, open dinner and start the party. I'm sure that you all already knew the first one so I'm going to skip it as that would just waste fifteen seconds of your life and your eating time." Everyone laughed again. "So, I proudly announce that dinner is officially open and this party of a lifetime can begin!" Everyone cheered and Percy stepped off the stage.

I turned back to the seven other girls at our table.

"Party of a lifetime, huh?" I said. "I've probably been to better."

"And if you haven't," Isabel said, "your wedding party will be."

I was about to come up with a comeback when someone interrupted me.

"Do you mind if we join you ladies?" Emily and Riley both gasped.

I turned around and was met face to face with Percy and Ashton.

The other girls seemed to be looking towards me for an answer.

"Uh, sure," I managed.

I didn't notice that the seat next to me was empty until Percy sat down to my right. Ashton took a seat on the other side, next to Chloe and Riley. My heart rate immediately tripled. I couldn't believe that he had chosen to sit next to me. Me, of all people. I mean, yeah, there was only one other seat at the table and he could have asked to sit at any other table in the room, but he chose to ask a table full of teenage girls if he could sit with them.

"Are you ok?" He asked me. I noticed that all of the other girls at the table were giving me smiles.

"Yeah-yeah I'm fine," I managed again. I quickly changed the subject. "So, Ashton, why aren't you sitting with Rayne?"

"I'm not part of their family yet, so I can't sit with them. Percy here convinced me to come over and sit with you guys, since he didn't want to be the only guy to sit with a bunch of girls."

"Oh, ok." I didn't really know what to say next, but luckily the food came and saved me.

We continued to make small talk while we ate, but after the food was cleared the music began to play signaling the first song.

"Excuse me," Ashton said quickly. He ran up to Rayne's table and asked her something, presumably to dance. She agreed and the two of them walked down to the dance floor, followed by Rayne's parents.

Percy then got up next to me and my heart began to beat faster and faster. _What if he asked me to dance on the first song?_ I thought.

But he didn't ask me. He walked up to his sister, three seats to my left.

"May I have this dance, Abby?"

"Of course you can Perce," she replied. The two of them waited fifteen seconds and then joined Rayne and her parents on the dance floor.

I was very disappointed. Isabel, who was sitting to my left, turned back towards me after Percy and Abby had walked onto the dance floor and gave me a smile after she saw my disappointment.

"Don't worry Annabeth," she said. "I'm sure Percy will ask you to dance before the night is out. No need to look so down." The other five girls turned to look at me. Rosalyn laughed.

"Really? It's one dance and you're already down? Come on, please do tell me that you knew that this was the family dance, right?"

"The fam-oh. Yeah, I did," I said quickly. I forgot the first dance of the night was always the family dance, where you danced with someone from your family if you could. Of course Percy would dance with Abby. That raised my spirits.

"No you didn't. You totally forgot about it," Rosalyn said. "You were too focused on Percy that you forgot the very first dance. You thought he shunned you and picked his sister over you, so you were about to cry."

"I wasn't about to cry," I said.

"But you did forget about the family dance."

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

"Fine!" I yelled. "Ok, I did. Happy now?"

"Very," she said. "Oh, look. Here come some cute guys. Maybe they'll ask you to dance."

Sure enough, one of them did. We danced together for a couple of songs, before I wanted a break. I saw Percy was dancing with some other girl.

This continued for most of the night. It was probably five or six hours into the party and Percy still hadn't asked me to dance. I was getting more frustrated by the second.

It was announced that there was one more song to go and the music was about to start when Percy sprinted up onto the stage.

His sister had told me that there was some sort of speech that he was going to do, and I assumed that this was it.

"There's something that must be done before this last song takes place," he said. "There's one girl that I need to come up here, and I have to ask her a question."

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**A/N:**

**Ooh, cliffy! Told you that you wouldn't like me.**

**If you want to see the links to Rayne's dress and the idea behind Rosalyn's dress, they are on my profile.**

**Now, here's the Question of the Chapter (easy one this time): Would you rather visit the North Pole or the South Pole?**

**For me, the South, definitely. Why? Penguins beat Polar bears. Simple as that.**

**Also, if you guys could review the chapter as well as answer the question, that would be amazing.**

**Make sure to review (and answer)!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	7. Chapter 7

**Great job with the answers guys, keep it up.**

**So, I've had a lot of people ask if Percy and Annabeth could fight. I know I can't get it in this story, but if I make a sequel then I'll be sure to put it in there. You guys can help decide whether or not you want a sequel and I'm thinking you might after the end that I have in store for this one.**

**Anyway, we finish the party in Chapter 7. There's no cliffy at the end, so that's good.**

**Now here's Chapter Seven of The Princess and the Peasant.**

**Disclaimer: I can't even vote yet.**

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Chapter Seven: Percy POV

The party was awesome. Everything was going to plan, so far. I had kicked off the party with a bang, and I saw the other guys were sticking to Ashton's plan very nicely. They would each ask Rayne to dance a single song, and they would ask her the same question. I saw Grover start it, then Adam, Oliver and the rest of the guys. I could tell Rayne was starting to get frustrated, and I knew the plan was working. Now it was my turn to finish it off.

I was standing on the stage in the front of the room and I had everyone's attention. I took a look at Annabeth, but she wasn't the girl I wanted to talk to, although I would talk with her once I was done.

"Princess Rayne, could you come up here?" I asked. Rayne was in the back of the room and she wasn't anywhere close to Ashton, who I saw make his way out a side door. He would be joining us shortly. I locked eyes with Lord Ares for a second as Rayne made her way up to the stage and I could tell he probably knew what was about to happen, unlike almost everyone else in the crowd.

Rayne finally made her way onto the stage. She stood next to me for a second before I spoke.

"So, how do you like your party, Rayne?"

"It's amazing. I'm not sure it could get any better. Was that the question you wanted to ask me?" '_Not sure it could get any better,' _I thought. _Just wait a couple of minutes and let me ask you that question again._

"No, of course not," I said out loud. "That would be pretty pointless to bring you up here and ask you that, wouldn't it?"

"Well, yeah," she replied. "So, what's your question?"

"How long have you been dating Ashton?"

"Why do people keep asking me that?" She said. "I swear you're the sixth or seventh guy to ask me that tonight."

"Oh, really?" I said with a smile. "That's interesting. I think those guys have been stealing my idea. Now how long did you say you were dating again?"

"I didn't."

"Ok, now Rayne," I said. "I swear to you that I'm going to be the last person to ask you this. Just give me an answer so we can get off this stage."

"Fine," she replied. "Three years, four months and twenty-one days. Why?"

"No reason really." I leaned in close to her, but still said quite loudly, so the other people could hear, "It's just that I heard something going around that he doesn't want to date you anymore."

"PERCY! What do you think you're doing?" Ashton was walking briskly onto the stage from the left side, the side that I was facing. And he had perfect timing.

"Oh, uh, hey Ashton," I said quickly like I was scared. "I, uh, I'll be going now."

I sprinted off the other side of the stage, but only just out of the view of the other people. I slammed a door that we had propped open to make it seem like I had left the stage quickly.

I turned my attention back to the stage. Rayne was almost in tears when Ashton reached her. He wrapped his arms around her.

"Please tell me it isn't true, Ash. Please tell me that it isn't true."

Ashton unwrapped his arms from around Rayne and stuck his hands in his pockets. He waited a couple of seconds before replying.

"That's the thing, Rayne. It _is _true. I _don't_ want to date you anymore." A collective gasp arose from the crowd and Rayne broke down crying. Before she could cover her face with her hands, Ashton quickly took his hands out of his pockets, took her hands in his and continued, "I want to _marry_ you."

Another collective gasp arose from the crowd as Ashton got onto one knee.

"These three years, four months and twenty-one days have been the best three years, four months and twenty-one days in my life. To be honest, I probably would have asked you this a couple of weeks ago had it not been for this party. All in all, I love you Rayne. When I first saw you at that event three-and-a-half years ago, my mind was blown away. I didn't think anybody could be that beautiful. But you were. You proved me wrong like you do every day. Your beauty and your love and the fact that I get to see you every day is what propels me in life. I don't want to hit that twenty-second day. I want to be here and now and forever." He took out the box from his pocket and opened it, revealing a gold ring with a small diamond on the top. "Will you marry me, Rayne?"

You could tell she was speechless. Rayne was definitely crying now, but these were tears of joy. She managed to nod her head and Ashton put the ring on her finger. Ashton stood up, they shared a kiss and the crowd went crazy. I walked slowly back out onto the stage.

I could tell the cheering was starting to die down. Ash led Rayne over to one side as I addressed the crowd.

"Come on, let's give it up for them one last time." There was one last short cheer. "As the first person to say it, congratulations, you two. I don't think I could picture each of you with anyone else." I turned back to the crowd. "Now, we have one more dance tonight before this party has got to end." There was a small groan from the crowd. "I know, I know. But it had to end sometime, right? Anyway, in honor of the two new fiancés," Another small cheer went up, "this last dance will be a slow dance, so make sure if the love of your life is in the crowd, guys, you dance with her. The musicians have agreed to make this song extra slow to give plenty of time for all the lovebirds out there to dance with the person of their dreams. Now, Ash and Rayne, I believe that you two should start us off. The rest of us will follow after a couple of seconds." Ashton led Rayne off of the stage. "Now everyone find a partner."

I walked off the stage. There was one girl I had in mind for this last dance. I saw her over standing next to her friends. I walked up to her and locked my eyes with her startling gray ones.

"Your highness," I said while I bowed. "May I have the pleasure of having this dance?"

She took a quick glance over to her friends. I noticed that they all had huge smiles on their faces.

She turned back to me with a smile of her own.

"Why of course you can. But I think the pleasure's all mine, dancing with a swordsman as good as you are."

"Oh, I'm flattered, my princess," I said as I took her hand and led her towards the dance floor. "But flattery doesn't get you far in swordfighting."

"Of course it doesn't. But that's why you're the swordsman and I'm the lady."

I gave Annabeth a smile and led her right next to Ashton and Rayne, who gave each of us a smile themselves.

The music had already begun. This was the time I had been waiting for. I was finally getting to dance with the royal princess. I placed my hands on her hips and she wrapped her arms around my neck. We stared into each other's eyes for a minute while we danced. After that minute was up, she just placed her head on my chest and we danced like that for the rest of the song. We didn't talk to each other during the dance, which was fine by me. I think that made it better. Eventually the song ended, but it was probably the best six-minute song I've ever danced to.

We headed out of the dining hall together and I walked her to her room. When we got to the door, she stopped and turned around to face me.

"Thanks, Percy. I had an amazing time tonight. I'm glad you asked me to dance that last song with you."

"I am too. Like you said, it was an amazing time tonight."

"So, the 'love of your life' thing that you said about the last dance. Did that in any way, shape, or form apply to you asking me tonight?"

"That's up to you to decide, Annabeth," I said.

"Fine, make me think about it."

"I heard that you do that a lot. Think, I mean."

"Oh, really?" She asked. "And where did you hear that from?"

"I have my sources," I said with a smile.

"If you say so," she replied.

"I'll see you tomorrow," I said. I was about to turn and leave when Annabeth spoke.

"What? Can't I get a hug first?" She held out her arms.

I turned back around. "Only because you're the royal princess."

When I put my arms around her, it didn't just feel right. It felt bloody perfect.

I decided to ask her the question that was on my mind on the whole way up to her room.

"So, do you want to have breakfast with me tomorrow morning?"

"Are you asking me out on a date, Percy Jackson?"

"That depends on whether or not you consider it a date, Annabeth Chase."

She seemed to think about it for a second.

"Well, I _should_ be with Rayne and help her start to plan out her wedding," She paused when she saw my face drop a little, "but I'm sure she'll understand if I have obligations of my own." She gave me a smile.

I smiled back at her.

"Then when would you like me to come and get you, my lady?"

"You're asking me?" She asked. "Doesn't the man make all the decisions where you live?"

"Yeah," I replied, "but the lady runs the show."

"Very well," she replied with a giggle. "How does 8 sound to you?"

"8 sounds perfect Annabeth. I'll be here then."

With that, we shared one last hug and she made her way into her room.

When I got back to my room, Abby was already there. She gave me an inquisitive look, but didn't say anything. I got changed out of my outfit from the party and went to bed.

I couldn't sleep though, as I kept thinking about what had happened that night. I lay awake on my back for around two or three hours. Eventually I fell asleep and I had a dream that included a certain cute blonde.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Ok, so what did you think of the chapter? Pretty good, right? Percy and Annabeth are flying pretty well, no bumps or bruises on their relationship, so far.**

**I'm starting to run out of questions to ask, so shoot me some ideas and I might use them.**

**Here's the Question of this Chapter: Would you rather be a Greek or Roman demigod and who would your parent be?**

**I would rather be Greek, but have an ancient lineage of Roman, sort of like Frank, but the opposite way. My Greek parent would be Poseidon (water ftw) and my Roman ancestor would be Minerva (Roman Athena if you didn't know). I know those two don't really go together, but that's what I would be.**

**In other words, my new story The Big Three is up. Check it out. I'll give you the just of it. Percy, Thalia and Nico started a band which eventually grew into one of the biggest in the world. Are they popular? Well, no. Their band is, but those three aren't. The thing is, The Big Three is shrouded in mystery; no one knows who they are, and Percy, Thalia and Nico like it that way. They just want to be normal highschoolers and heading into junior year at Goode High it seems to be working. But when a new girl transfers to Goode from the West Coast for their junior year and wears a The Big Three t-shirt on her first day, things get interesting. Will they be able to keep their identities a secret, or will this new girl rat them out in front of the whole world? The full summary for the story can be found in Chapter One of the story.**

**Like I said, check it out.**

**Now make sure you review!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey, great job with the reviewing guys, keep it up.**

**Just to let you know, I had the first person last chapter criticize my lack of historical accuracy. I have now entered a historical disclaimer into chapter 1. Please take some time to read it. Thank you.**

**We continue on with Chapter 8. The story takes a twist here that you will probably not like. Oh well, deal with it. I should finish writing the story either today or tomorrow. There will be a total of 13 chapters, not including the possibility for a sequel. You guys can decide on that after Chapter 13 is posted.**

**Well, here's Chapter Eight of The Princess and the Peasant. Enjoy!**

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Chapter Eight: Annabeth POV

"Annabeth!" Isabel yelled. "Someone's here to see you!"

I smiled to myself. I finished combing my hair and I looked myself over. I had put on a simple pale green dress and I put my hair into a ponytail.

"Did you hear me?" Isabel poked her head into the bathroom. When she saw my smile, she gave me a mischievous grin. "You knew he was coming, didn't you?"

"Maybe. Maybe not," I replied as I glided past her into the main room.

"Oh, Annabeth Chase, you keep surprising me."

"I try, Isabel. I try." We shared a laugh.

"So, are you going to help Rayne with the plans today?" She asked.

"I'm not sure yet Isabel. I'm going to have to see where this goes first."

"But you might stop by today?"

"Possibly. Let Rayne know it's up for possibility."

"Ok," Isabel replied. "I'll make sure to let her know. Have fun on your date."

I rolled my eyes. To be honest, I wasn't sure whether to consider it a date or not. I mean, I wanted to, but I wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do.

"I'll see you later, Isabel."

Percy met me in the anteroom. He was wearing a simple white shirt and pants and he had a bead necklace on.

"Annabeth," he said. "How are you doing this morning?"

"Terrific, thanks for asking."

"Ready to go?" He held out his arm, which I gratefully took.

"Yeah, let's go." I said goodbye to Sharon and we headed down to breakfast.

When we got down to the dining hall, the layout was back to normal. The hall was pretty packed, which surprised me, since I assumed most people would sleep in today after the party. We were able to find a small table by ourselves and we were served quickly.

"So," Percy said a couple of minutes after we had gotten our food, "what did you think of the party last night?"

"Oh, I loved it," I replied. "The way you set up Rayne for that proposal was genius."

"It wasn't just me. Grover, Adam and the other guys first annoyed her so much by asking her the exact same question. It was funny to watch it progress like it did."

"Really? I wish I had known. That would have been cool to see."

"Yeah," he replied. "But you probably would have ruined the surprise."

"Yeah, probably." I laughed.

"So when do you think the wedding will be held?" He asked.

"I don't know. We should stop by Rayne's room and see how the plans are going."

"Ok, we can-"

At that moment one of the guards from the castle walls came running into the dining hall.

"Raiders!" He yelled. "And lots of them!" I heard Percy swear under his breath. He motioned over to a guy who I recognized as Oliver.

"Get her back to her room," Percy commanded. "I'll head out to the walls and see what the situation is."

"You don't have any armor," Oliver pointed out.

"I know," he replied. "I need you to get Annabeth up to her room. Then get over to the arena and get your armor on. Grab mine and join me at the wall. I can hold out until then."

"Ok." Oliver turned towards me and grabbed my arm. "Come on princess, we need to get you out of here." He started to lead me out of the dining hall. The people who hadn't left the hall already were in chaos. At least the women were. The men of the castle seemed like they had the situation under control.

"What's going on?" I asked Oliver as we sprinted up the stairs.

"It's a raid," he replied. "The Irish like to raid Caemarfon from time to time. We're the closest to the Irish border other than Northern Ireland, but N.I. is always ready for an attack, so we're the next option."

"Oh." My mind shifted to Percy. "Will Percy be ok? I mean, he doesn't have armor on."

"He'll be fine. He's known as the best swordsman in the district for a reason. Now keep moving, he won't last forever."

We had reached my room. We flew inside. Sharon was already gone.

"Ok," Oliver said. "Grab some of your important items and head over to Rayne's room. She should have armed guards on her by now. If they do happen to infiltrate the castle, that's the safest room to be in. Do you know your way there?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Ok. I have to go. Immediately make your way over there. Don't waste time. I'll see you later."

"Ok, thanks Oliver."

Oliver was already out the door. I sprinted into my room and grabbed my jewelry case. I was tempted to take some dresses with me, but I knew they could always be bought again if they were ruined. The jewelry was more important. I wrote a quick note to Isabel in case she didn't know where I was and headed off towards Rayne's room.

Sure enough, even before I got to her room, six or seven guards were outside Rayne's hallway, positioned at each staircase. They waved me through once they recognized who I was and I ran to Rayne's door. Inside Rayne's anteroom was another ten or twelve guards, who ushered me into the bedroom.

Rayne, her mother, Abby, Rosalyn and around ten or twelve other girls were in the room already. I set my jewelry case on top of Rayne's and went over to her. She gave me a hug.

"It's ok," she said calmly. "We've handled this type of thing before. Oh good, here's Isabel."

I turned around. Sure enough, Isabel came rushing into the room, looking scared.

I gave her a hug.

"It's ok, Isabel," I said. "We're safe here."

A few other girls showed up in the room over the next couple of minutes and then we waited. One hour. Two hours. Three. Four.

The whole time I couldn't stop thinking about Percy.

Finally, Lord Ares came into the room. Thirty girls talked at once.

"Quiet!" He yelled. Everyone quieted down. "The attack has been repelled. We had no casualties, but there were several severe injuries and many more minor ones." He turned towards me and Rayne. "Ashton and Percy are fine, although both have some minor scrapes and Percy has quite the cut on his arm. You should be able to see him in the infirmary in an hour or two."

I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Percy was ok. That's all that really mattered. And no casualties. That was even better.

"You all should stay here," Lord Ares continued. "I will send someone up when we're sure the attack has gone."

So we waited another hour. Eventually we were free to roam the castle again and Isabel and I returned to our room, where I placed my jewelry case back where it was before the attack. We then collected Abby from her room and made our way down to the infirmary to check on Percy.

When we got there, though, we were in for a surprise.

"Percy's been recalled to Nefyn. His mother said it was urgent."

"What?" Abby said. "What happened? Is she hurt? Are they in trouble?"

"Settle down," the healer said. "Your mother told us to keep you here at the castle for the next two weeks. She says your brother will handle it and he should be back within the next month."

"The next _month_?" Abby said. "What is he doing?"

"I'm not sure, my lady. I'm only relaying the information your mother told us."

Abby looked like she was about to freak out.

"Abby," I said, trying to calm her down, "I'm sure your brother will be fine. You can talk with your mom about it when you see her."

"I know that Annabeth, but what worries me is that he was called back to Nefyn so fast and that he's going to be gone for a month. I'm worried about what he's doing."

"Like your highness said, your brother should be fine. Your mother was acting like he wasn't going to be in that much of a trouble area. If you really want to get as much information as possible, go and talk with Lord Ares. I'm sure he knows what's going on."

"Thank you," I said to the healer. I turned towards Abby. "Come on Abby, let's go see Lord Ares and see what he knows."

"Ok."

We made our way up to Lord Ares' study, but he wasn't there. His secretary told us that we could stay until he arrived, but we didn't know how long that would take, so we decided against it. I did, however, tell the secretary that we would be in Rayne's room and to send a messenger when Lord Ares returned.

The three of us made our way back to Rayne's room, where Rosalyn greeted us at the door. The only other person in the room other than Rayne was her mother, Lady Allyson.

"What happened?" She asked almost immediately. I guess it was a mom thing, being able to figure out situations that quick. I don't know if it was me or Abby that gave it away though. Ever since the healer said that Percy was gone, I started to feel worse and worse. I _knew_ something was going to happen between us, either during breakfast or after breakfast. But then the raid had come in and now he was back in Nefyn, where he would be away for a month. I was really looking forward to these last two days.

I think Isabel realized that neither Abby nor I was going to answer Lady Allyson.

"Percy's gone," she said.

"Gone?" Rayne jerked up. "What do you mean gone?"

"Well, not exactly gone," Isabel replied. "His mother came and took him back to Nefyn. Said it was urgent. We don't know anything other than the fact that he's going to be gone for a month."

"A month?" Rayne asked. "Does my dad know about this?"

"We're not sure," Isabel said. "We just tried to go and talk with him, but he wasn't at his study."

"We should figure this out."

"No, no it's fine, Rayne," I said. "I told the secretary to send a messenger when he returned."

"Oh, ok," she replied. "Do you want to help me with my wedding plans, then?"

I looked at Abby. She nodded her head.

"Sure," I replied. "It'll get our minds off Percy. For a while at least."

So we talked about Rayne's wedding for the rest of the day. Lord Ares didn't return that night, which was strange, so we stayed in Rayne's room. Despite what I told her about it getting our minds off Percy, it didn't help me at all. I kept worrying about him. I could tell Abby was too. The two of us kept glancing at each other, trying to convey our worries in those short nervous looks.

Until I knew more, I could only imagine what Percy was doing in that moment in time.

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**So, you're thoughts on this last chapter? Please post those in the 'Review' section.**

**Ok, now don't be mad at me, or else I might not post chapter 9.**

**Now for your Question of the Chapter (real philosophical here): Why do you read my stories (or story if this is the only one you read)?**

**I'll tell you why I write them. Personally I'm not that big of an English guy in school, but I still write these stories. Why? Entertainment, first off. These stories give you, as well as me, a chance to forget the real world for a couple of seconds, minutes, hours, or whatever. They give you a chance to drift off into that dream world where everything is perfect and everyone gets a happy ending. Will there be one in this story? Only time will tell. Or you could pay me $20 and I could tell you. Either way works. Secondly, it gives you a chance to think. Maybe you see something that's cool in the story and you want to try it out. Or you see a conversation that I wrote between Percy and Annabeth and you think you might want to try that on a girl. If it fails, sorry man, it wasn't really supposed to be used in real life. If it works, hey congrats. You can give me all the credit.**

**Just tell me what you think. I'll appreciate any answer.**

**Now make sure you review!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	9. Chapter 9

**First off, great job with the reviewing guys. Keep it up.**

**Now, last chapter I had a guest reviewer tell me about my English accent when writing this story. To answer that, uh, what accent? I haven't been aware of this accent, so I must be doing it unconsciously, if I'm doing it all. In case you didn't know, I'm American. That's not to call that person out or anything, it's just weird that you said that, because it wasn't planned.**

**Anyway, I've ranted for too long. Speaking of long, you know what else is long? This chapter, obviously. Get your minds out of the gutter guys. 12 pages of Word this chapter took up, so please enjoy it.**

**Many of you are probably wondering what happened to Percy. If so, this is the chapter for you. Percy's dilemma is revealed in this chapter. To let you know, I've had one person already correctly guess what's about to happen. For that I commend them.**

**Now, here's Chapter Nine of The Princess and the Peasant.**

**Disclaimer: Riordan? A senior in high school? I don't think so. - By the way, if I forgot to do this last chapter, I'm sorry. I sort of forgot.**

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Chapter Nine: Percy POV

You could say I was surprised when my mom came to the castle to bring me back home. You could say I was shocked. You could say I was flabbergasted. You could say I was-well, you get the point.

The two of us made our way home from the castle, my arm still bandaged from the sword cut I had received from the raid. It really pissed me off though, because I should have stopped it. A lucky shot really. Nothing more than that. Yes, I was bleeding slightly, but not so much that it was really something to worry about. I was too busy worrying about what my mom had in store for me anyway.

I had my armor with me as my mom told me that I would need it where I was going.

Where I was going. Now there's the million dollar question. Where _was_ I going? My mom never told me. She said it would be revealed once we got home.

The hour long ride back was silent, since my mother wouldn't tell me what was going on. I sat on Blackjack's back, frustrated, but eventually we made it back home.

"Hurry up with Blackjack," she said. "You leave tomorrow."

Tomorrow? Now that got me interested. I quickly finished getting my armor and the saddle off of Blackjack and then I walked inside the house, which was silent.

I found my mom up in her room. She handed me a letter, which was addressed to me.

It was already opened. My mom obviously had already read it. I looked up at my mom and then down at the letter before reading.

_My dearest nephew Percy,_

_ I have come to understand that you have been told your ancestry, as evidenced by the inquisition for the painting of nobility._

_ I am glad to hear that you three are alive and well. When your mother left after your father's death, we lost contact with her. We may not have known why she made the decision, but we understood her dilemma._

_ When she first sent that letter to me about the painting, your uncle and I were ecstatic to hear from her again. We heard that you have become quite successful yourself, as well as your sister. Unfortunately this letter does not involve your sister._

_ Your uncle and I have agreed that you should come to Berlin. Being the oldest of any of our sons, you would be the first one we would call to, should there be any dispute for the throne._

_ Your mother has informed me of your intent to compete in an event in two months and we have agreed that you should be a part of that event. We would give you plenty of time to return to the UK in order to prepare._

_ But between then, we want you to travel here to Berlin. We would love to inform you about your ancestry further as well as advance your skill in swordfighting._

_ We agree with your mother. In order for you to become a successful swordmaster, you __must__ come to Germany._

_ My oldest son will arrive on the next morn to bring you to Berlin._

_ Until we meet then,_

_King Zeus Olympii_

He signed it in elegant handwriting.

I looked up at my mom and then back down at the letter. One line stood out to me, 'We agree with your mother.'

I looked back up at my mom.

"This was your idea?" I asked.

"I thought it would be better for you. You need to get to know your family and your history."

"But why so urgent, mom?" I asked. "Why couldn't we wait a couple of weeks? And why not Abby?"

"A couple of weeks and you would be preparing for the Championships, Percy. I couldn't let it go for that long. The only opportunity was now. And as for Abby, I knew she would be helping Rayne with the wedding. There's no way she could take a month off."

"Ok, that makes sense," I said. "But I do need to know something before I leave tomorrow."

"And what's that?" My mom asked.

"Why did you leave? Why couldn't we stay in Berlin?"

"To be honest, Percy, I freaked. I didn't know what to do, so I got scared and left. It was probably one of the worst decisions I ever made."

"Mom, we're here. That's not going to change. We have Abby and you have a successful business. You have two kids who are earning their way the right way, not just sitting in a huge castle getting everything they want. To me, and to Abby to, it was probably the _best_ decision you ever made."

My mom got up and gave me a hug. "Thanks Percy. I don't know what I would do without you."

"You're welcome mom. I'm glad I could help."

"Ok, you should probably get packing then."

"Ok, I will." I started to walk out of the room, but I stopped and turned back around. "And mom? Thanks."

I walked up to my room. Since most of my things were in the room at the castle, I didn't have that much at home. I packed most of the clothes that I had in my room, which left maybe one or two things in the dresser. I knew I could probably buy new things in Berlin if I ran out of clothes.

After I got done packing what little items I had, I spent the rest of the day helping in the restaurant, even though they didn't need any help. It just gave me something to do.

Before I knew it, the night had gone and the sun was rising on the next day.

I was eating breakfast bright and early when King Zeus' son arrived. Zeus did say I was the oldest of all of their sons, so I assumed that this kid would be younger than I was. And I was correct. The kid that showed up looked to be around sixteen years old. He had short black hair and sharp blue eyes. He wore a green shirt and white shorts and he was riding a red stallion. He wore a black cape and a sword was attached to his side.

He was talking with my mother as I finished breakfast and walked up to them. He eyed me warily. I wasn't going to let this kid get to me, so I held out my hand. If he was my cousin, I wanted to be friends, not enemies.

"Percy Jackson," I said. He still had the wary look in his eyes, but he shook my hand.

"Sven Olympii," he replied. "It's a pleasure to meet you, cousin." His English was pretty good for a German.

"And you as well, Sven. Would you like some breakfast? I'm sure you're hungry, arriving here at this hour of the morning."

"I would appreciate breakfast very much. Are you packed and ready?"

"Almost," I replied. "I just have to get my horse ready."

"Very well. Get your horse prepared for the journey, and then once I am done eating we can head off. It's a long journey."

I headed off towards the house and got Blackjack ready while Sven ate a quick breakfast. Within a half-hour we were on our way.

Slowly, Sven's wariness turned into friendliness. By the time we got to Grimsby, England a day-and-a-half later, ready to cross over to the mainland, we were talking like we had been best friends for life.

Sven told me about his younger brother and sister, who were fourteen and thirteen respectively, as well as about life in the castle at Berlin. He told me about my other cousins, a sixteen year old girl, a fourteen year old girl and a thirteen year old guy. They all seemed pretty cool. He asked me about my life, and I told him about the little town of Nefyn as well as the restaurant and my sister, and then about the castle and all of my friends there.

All in all, our lives didn't seem that much different, other than the fact that he led a life of a prince and I-well, I didn't lead the life of a prince.

We continued to talk and learn more about each other along our trip to Berlin.

After five long, hard days, including one night at sea, we finally came within the boundary of the castle. You could tell that because there were a lot more people on the road, several who stopped to bow to Sven, as he was the prince. You still couldn't see the castle, but you could tell it was close, because the roads became more and more packed as we went along.

When we finally came into view of the castle of Berlin, I caught my breath. It had to be at least five times the size of the castle at Caemarfon. A solid stone wall thirty feet tall surrounded the castle, protecting it from an attack. There were ten or twelve guard towers around the top of the wall and that wasn't counting the ones I couldn't see on the far side. Hundreds of guards patrolled the top of the walls and half of them had crossbows. They also had a moat twenty feet wide that surrounded the outside of the wall and Sven told me there was another one surrounding the castle. Two drawbridges were positioned at cardinal North and cardinal South and several hundred people crossed them at one time.

Sven and I walked over the northern drawbridge and the castle itself came into view. It was made of pure white marble. It had several sub-towers that rose on each of the four corners and a huge central spire that rose high into the sky. A courtyard surrounded the castle and in the distance you could see a small neighborhood of houses along with a market. On the other side of the castle stood an archery range and their arena, which was their prized possession as Sven told me. I couldn't wait to check it out.

Sven led me towards the stables where a twenty-one year old took both Blackjack and Sven's horse into a stable. Sven told me that my belongings would be taken to my room. He then led me through a side door of the castle and up an intricate stairwell. We then crossed into another room and then up into what I assumed was the central spire. We then went into another stairwell and finally out into a long corridor. The corridor was similar to the corridor that led to Ares' study, but it was more intricate. There were still the couches and the family paintings, but there was that additional 'this-is-royalty' feeling that came with it.

Sven led me to the end of the corridor and through the door. We came out into a study very similar to Ares' but with greater size. I thought we were going to stop here, but Sven led me through one of the side doors. We walked into a bedroom greater than any I've ever seen before. A single four-poster bed sat in the middle against the far wall. A multitude of pillows sat on the bed. Golden sheets lay under the pillows and silver curtains were tied up along the sides of the bed. A huge mirror lined the right side wall and a massive dresser and wardrobe were placed on either side. On the left side of the room was a door, which I assumed led into the bathroom, and a single wooden writing desk. A lady of around forty sat at the desk. As we entered, she turned towards us.

"Sven, you're back safe. And this must be Percy," the lady said.

"Hey mom," Sven said.

"Queen Hera," I said while I bowed. I remembered the name from when Sven was telling me about his family. Hera was his mother, and I assumed that she was the queen.

"Oh, no need to do that, Percy. We're all family here. How's your mother? I haven't talked to her in ages."

"She's doing great, Aunt Hera. She's got a successful business that's known as one of the best in Wales."

"That's great," she replied. "And your sister? Is she doing well?"

"She's doing terrific," I said. "We're both living in the castle in Caemarfon."

"Very good. Very good. Well, I hope you enjoy your stay here, Percy. Just remember that you have family all around you."

"Ok, I will. Thanks Aunt Hera."

"So, what brings you two here?" She asked Sven.

"Do you know where dad is?" He asked. "I'm assuming that he wants to see Percy."

"Oh, your father is down in the throne room."

"Ok, thanks mom."

We made our way down to the throne room, which was _very _impressive. As evidenced by the name, it was a very large room and two thrones were on a stage in the back of the room. Only one of them was occupied. As we got closer, I was able to examine the man sitting in it more closely. He looked to be around forty-three or forty-four. His slick black hair was starting to thin, and he had sharp blue eyes, just like Sven. He wore a pale red shirt and he had a golden crown on his head. He was talking with a girl of around sixteen years old. She had long brown hair and green eyes. She was kind of tall, only two or three inches shorter than me. She wore a white dress.

"But uncle-" the girl was saying.

"No, Carina, and that is final."

"Fine," The girl, Carina, said. She looked like she was about to turn and leave when she noticed me. "Who's this?"

"Carina, you know about your other uncle, right?" The man said.

"Yeah, of course I do."

"Well, this is his son, Percy Jackson. He's your cousin."

I held out my hand. "Nice to meet you." She shook my hand. Her hands were soft and warm.

"Nice to meet you too," she said. "My name is Carina Olympii and apparently we're cousins."

"Apparently," I said with a smile. Carina gave a small laugh. She must be the sixteen year old cousin that Sven was telling me about.

"So," she said, "do you want a tour later?"

"Sure," I said. "Unless you were going to give me one Sven."

"I was," he replied, "but since Carina wants to give you one, that's one less thing I have to worry about. I'll make sure your stuff got to your room okay and then I'll meet you guys for dinner."

"That sounds like a plan," the man on the throne said. He turned towards me. "I should probably introduce myself. As you have probably figured out, I am Sven's father and your Uncle Zeus Olympii. I am glad that you could travel here, Percy."

"I'm glad I could too, uncle. This month is going to be awesome."

"Very well. I do hope you enjoy yourself. I will see you at dinner." He rose from his seat.

"I'm looking forward to it."

He smiled. "Sven, come along. Percy, enjoy the tour."

I thanked him as he and Sven made their way out of the throne room. When they had left, I turned back to Carina, who was giving me a smile.

"So," I said. "You're dad's Hades?"

"Yeah," she replied. "And you're the long lost cousin that everyone talks about."

"Long lost cousin, huh?" I said as we began to walk. "How do you know that it isn't the other way around?"

"Because," she said, "I've lived here for sixteen years and you haven't."

I laughed. I liked Carina already. "Great logic you have there."

"Oh, shut up." She punched my arm.

"Wow," I said. "We just met and you're already on the punching stage. What does this mean for our relationship?"

"It means nothing," she replied as she punched me again. "You're older, so _you_ should be able to handle it."

I laughed again and wrapped my arm around her shoulder as we walked out of the throne room.

"You know, you're pretty cool Carina."

"You know, you're pretty annoying Percy."

I laughed. "My sister tells me it's one of my best traits."

"Really? How old is your sister?"

"Sixteen. Same age as you. Why?"

"No reason," Carina replied. "It would be cool to meet her."

"I'm sure that can be arranged."

"Ok, cool," she said. "Come on, let's get on with the tour."

Carina showed me the castle, which kept surprising me with what it contained. I mean, I was surprised because I do live in a castle myself, but I guess when it's the capital and the King lives there, it has to have rooms other castles don't.

For instance, the billiard room. I've never seen one of those rooms ever. There were around six or seven rectangular tables that had green felt covering them. Four holes were positioned at each of the corners and then two in the middle of the long sides. Some guys who were playing the game hit a white ball with a stick, trying to knock the other balls into the holes. It was a very weird game. Carina told me she would teach me how to play when I was here.

"Then I can be as weird as you guys are," I said playfully. Carina just responded with a punch. Man, this girl liked to punch me.

We continued on. Carina showed me the dining hall, the war council room, the games room, where a bunch of old people played chess and checkers, and her room, which she shared with her sister Elisabeth. She showed me the armory as well as the spa/pool. It was really cool. You couldn't tell from poolside, but Carina told me it was in the shape of a dove, which I thought was interesting.

She led me outside to the little village, where she told me that the high ranking officers and their families lived there. We walked through the market and then she showed me the amphitheater, which I couldn't see when I had arrived because it was behind the castle. Carina explained that they held plays and other theatrical productions there. She would take me to one of those as well.

Finally we reached the far side of the castle, and we explored the archery range. There were three stations: short, medium and long, with two targets at each station. When we got there, around twenty or so archers were practicing their shot. Most of them were pretty good, but Carina told me that the Germans weren't known all that well for their archers.

We finally made it to the arena, something that I had been dying to see ever since I first saw it. It was a normal arena, not like Ares' which was built into the ground. It was made of brown stone and rose seventy feet into the air, higher than the wall surrounding the castle. Carina was about to lead me inside when I noticed a huge banner on the side of the arena. It read, 'Weltmeisterschaften Berlin: 11 Juli – 25 Juli.'

"What does that say?" I asked Carina. My mom had started to teach me German, but I only knew the basics. I was hoping to learn some more here, but I definitely did not know what the banner said.

"World Championships, Berlin. July 11th to July 25th," she translated. "The World Championships are being held here in Berlin this year. It's a two-week-long event."

"Really?" I asked. "That's awesome."

"Yeah, Uncle Zeus is extremely proud to get the Worlds to come to Germany. This place is going to be absolutely packed in July. There will be so many people here, all the rooms in the castle will be filled, people will be sleeping in tents inside the walls and out, and security is going to basically quintuple."

"Wow, that really is a huge event."

"Yeah, if you haven't been to a Worlds competition yet, you really need to go to one."

"Don't worry," I said. "I plan on attending the next one."

"Really? Awesome." Carina paused when she saw my face. "Wait a minute, we're not on the same page here are we?"

"I don't think so."

"Well, if you're not coming to watch-" It hit her. "You're trying to qualify, aren't you?"

"I plan on it," I replied.

"Wait, but if you aren't qualifying through Germany, how are you qualifying?"

"The UK," I replied simply. "I'm representing my district in May."

"Oh, cool. I really hope you make it. Having two Germans in the competition would be awesome."

"Well, I have to beat fifteen other people first."

"Ok, well good luck."

"Thanks Carina."

We walked into the arena and even though I could tell we were still on the ground level, I had a feeling that the atmosphere here would be just as good, if not better, than the atmosphere back at Caemarfon.

Carina finally led me back to my room, which was basically like her room except for the fact that there was only one bed instead of two. A small bathroom was on the right side and I had a single dresser and a writing table, which was stacked with papers and a note that read, 'Make sure to keep in touch with your family. If you need to send something, just give it to Sven or Carina and they'll take care of it. Aunt Hera.'

I continued to look around the room and I saw my armor lying in the corner. The rest of my things were piled on the bed. I walked over to my armor and made sure there were no dents or breaks that I would have to fix. Luckily, there were none.

I walked over to the bed and started to put away my clothes and other valuables. Carina sat on the edge of the bed and watched me the entire time, which was kind of creepy, but I let it go.

When I was done, I took a seat next to her on the bed.

"So, now what?" I asked her.

"Dinner," she said. "But that doesn't start for another half-hour. So, do you want to come over to my room and meet my sister? Then we can just hang out until dinnertime and the three of us can walk down together."

"That sounds good," I replied. "Let's go."

We walked down to Carina's room, which wasn't actually that far from my room. I met her sister Elisabeth. She was fourteen years old and she had long brown hair and green eyes like her sister, but Elisabeth's hair was a darker shade of brown. She wore a pale green dress.

The three of us talked for a half-hour before we headed down to dinner. King Zeus introduced me at dinner, and for a couple of seconds there was silence. Eventually someone in the very back started clapping and I got the warm welcome that I was hoping for. I had a feeling that I was going to be the talk of the dinner tables tonight.

After dinner, Carina made me come with her to the 'Cousins' Night,' which was one night a week where all of the royal cousins got together to talk and hang out. I thought it was pretty cool actually. I met my other cousins. Sven's younger brother Adler and younger sister Katinka were pretty cool. Adler had brown hair and blue eyes and Katinka had black hair and blue eyes like Sven. The only other cousin I hadn't met was Dieter, who was Carina and Elisabeth's younger brother. He had brown hair and brown eyes.

They all asked me about my life in Wales and about my younger sister Abby. I told them that I was definitely going to get her to come here with me one time.

We continued to talk through the night, but eventually I had to throw in the towel. It was my first day here and I was exhausted. Carina told me that she would come by to get me for breakfast in the morning and I headed off to bed.

The next morning I woke up just before Carina got there and she waited for me while I took a shower. Fifteen minutes later we were down in the dining hall eating breakfast when Sven came up to me.

"Hey," he said. "Hurry up and finish. We have training in forty minutes."

"Ok," I said. "Where should I meet you?"

"I'll come up to your room when it's time to go. Maybe fifteen minutes or so from now?"

"Ok, I'll be ready then. Armor or no armor?"

"Bring your armor. We can change into it there. I think today is a heavy session."

"Ok, I'll see you then." I quickly finished eating and said goodbye to Carina. I headed up to my room and got my armor ready. I changed into my normal cut-off shirt and shorts and I waited for Sven.

It wasn't long before he arrived and the two of us headed down to the arena. Adler was already down there as well as their instructor, Lord Aldrich. Sven told me he was the best teacher in Germany.

"So you must be Percy," Lord Aldrich said. "Very nice to meet you. I will be your instructor for your month's stay here."

"Thank you Lord Aldrich. And I look forward to learning from you."

"Very well. Now let's see where your skills are. Do you think you can take on a prince like Sven?"

"I am a prince, my lord, so I don't think that there should be any trouble." He smiled at this.

"Very well. Now you two get your armor on and then we'll see where you are Percy."

Once we had our armor on, I drew my sword. Sven did the same. To be honest, I had no idea how good Sven was with the sword, so this would be just like fighting a new opponent in the arena. I had a strategy for this and I planned on using it.

"Excellent," Lord Aldrich said. "Now are you two ready?" We both nodded our heads. "Then begin."

Neither of us attacked right away. Actually, neither of us attacked at all. We both gave each other several feints, but neither of us actually attacked. That was part of my strategy. I never attacked first in a duel and I could tell Sven was taught the same thing.

After around forty seconds of neither of us attacking, Lord Aldrich cut in.

"Ok, ok, this is getting nowhere. Sven, you attack first."

"But I never attack first. You taught me that."

"Yes, I know that. And obviously Percy was taught that too. But if neither of you attack, I can't evaluate Percy's skill with the sword. So you need to attack first."

"Fine. But if I lose, I'm blaming it on you." Lord Aldrich sighed. I saw that Sven's brother Adler was smiling behind him.

Sven turned back towards me.

"Ready? Go."

Sven started with another feint, but I was expecting it. Finally he attacked for real, sending an overhand cut at me.

It was pretty quick, but I was able to block it pretty easily. I immediately recognized that unless he was holding something back that I was much quicker than him.

Sven sent a quick thrust at me, which I deflected, and I returned an overhand of my own, not quite at full speed, as I wanted to make him think he still had a chance before I finished him off. You might think that's a little harsh, but I had to prove to my younger cousin that I still ruled over him, even if he was heir to the throne.

Sven blocked the overhand and returned a backhand of his own. I blocked that easy and continued to play with him for a couple of minutes. Right as I sensed that Lord Aldrich was going to step in, I went on the attack at full speed. I deflected Sven's last attack, a thrust, and attacked overhand, backhand, overhand in quick succession. All three of them found their marks on Sven's armor. I gave him a quick thrust and a final overhand before disarming him easily. Once I had done that, I sheathed my sword and took off my helmet. Adler's mouth was agape, and Lord Aldrich had a smug smile on his face.

"Interesting tactic, Percy. I don't think I've ever seen anyone who has had the quickness and the confidence to pull off what you just did."

"Thank you, my lord."

"I should be thanking you, Percy. That was quite the show you just put on. And on one of the better swordsmen in the castle, as well."

I turned towards Sven, who was just sheathing his own sword.

"So, what did you think, Sven?" I asked.

"You're incredible!" He replied. "I kept thinking I had you, but then you kept blocking my attacks with ease and then your attack was so quick! There's no way you can get any better."

"Really? Is that so?" Lord Aldrich said. "I would have to disagree with you. Hand me your shield and I'll explain." Sven handed Aldrich his shield. "Now, make an overhand cut at me, Percy. On the shield." I did as he asked. Aldrich actually took a half-step back when I attacked. "Ok, wow, there's power with that too. Nice job."

"Uh, thanks?" I wasn't sure whether that was a compliment or not.

"Anyway, let me point out to you what he's doing wrong. Percy has perfect balance as he's always on his toes when he fights. That's something you do well, Sven. He has the power and the quickness that not many people have, but his positioning could be slightly better."

"My positioning?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

"Your arm positioning, Percy. Take another swing at me and I'll explain further." Again I did as he asked. "Ok, that's good. Now, as you may have noticed Sven, Percy likes to keep his arms out from his body, a sign of a good, confident swordsman. It's only on this one stroke, but try this, Percy. Try to hold your sword arm a little closer to your body when you do an overhand cut. You should get a little more power and the stroke should be a little quicker."

I swung the sword in slow motion. "Like this?" I asked.

"Not quite," Lord Aldrich replied. "A little less closer to your body. If you get too close, you'll just cramp yourself. Like I said, it's only a slight change. More like here." He moved my arm to a position that felt exactly like my original position. "Now try again. Full speed this time."

I swung the sword again and I actually felt a slight increase. Not very much at all, but one that was detectable.

"I actually felt that," I said.

"Yes, very good," Lord Aldrich replied. "That's exactly where you should be. You see Sven, everyone can still get better, no matter how good they are."

"Ok, sweet," Sven replied.

"Now, I expect you to be almost as good as Percy by the time he leaves in a month. Maybe even as good as he is. Now let's continue on with training. Alder, come here. Let's do the triangle exercise."

"The triangle exercise?" I asked. Sven quickly explained it to me and we started training. Throughout the lesson I kept thinking that coming to Germany was the right decision. Well, the right decision in all of the categories except for one that is.

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**Another chapter down. Ok, so I lied to you. I probably won't get the story finished today. It'll most likely be done by the end of the week.**

**Now for update news. I will be uploading the second chapter of The Big Three on Thursday. If you haven't checked out chapter 1 yet, please do that. Chapter 10 for this story will either be uploaded on Monday or Tuesday of next week. With Labor Day this weekend, I'm not sure if I'm doing something on Monday or not.**

**An FYI, when Percy's in Germany, I'm not going to have him speak in German or anything. No Google translate will be needed when you read this story.**

**So, the Question of the Chapter (simple one this time): Did you like my beginner description of pool (or billiards)?**

**Make sure you review (and answer)!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	10. Chapter 10

**Ok, so we are now in double digit chapters. Yay for that.**

**Now, I had another guest reviewer tell me about my historical inaccuracy last chapter. I don't really know if they were joking or not, but that's the way I'm going to take it. As a joke. I did put up the Historical Disclaimer in Chapter 1 for a reason.**

**Chapter 10 is a short chapter, mostly a filler for the time between the wedding and the Championships.**

**Enough of my blabbering. Here's Chapter Ten of The Princess and the Peasant.**

**Disclaimer: I'm still a minor for another couple of months.**

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Chapter Ten: Annabeth POV

"Annabeth, are you ok?"

I sighed. It was the seventeenth time my mom had asked me that since I had gotten back to London and I had only been back a day.

"I'm fine mother."

"Are you sure? You haven't been as peppy as you are usually."

I sighed again. The whole way home I had debated whether or not to tell my mom about Percy. Eventually I decided against it because I could always talk to Isabel about him and my mom would just annoy me.

"Yes, mom," I eventually answered her.

"Ok, if you want somebody to talk to I'm always here."

"Ok, thanks mom." She finally left. I laid back on my bed for a while and eventually Isabel came into my room.

"Hey, you ok?" She asked. I gave her a look. "No, clearly not. What's wrong Annabeth?"

"Percy," I replied. It was a simple enough answer.

"It's ok. Abby and Rayne said they would keep us updated, right?"

"Yeah, but-"

"See? Stop worrying."

"I can't though, Isabel. I keep thinking that something was going to happen that morning. Something was going to happen between us, I could feel it. Especially after that hug the night before and then he asked me on that date-not-a-date that keeps bothering me and then-"

"Whoa, whoa, back up," Isabel said. "What's this about a hug and a date?"

I blushed a little.

"Uh, well after that last dance at the party he walked me up to my room and we talked for a while and then he was going to leave and I asked him for a hug and then we hugged and then he asked me to eat breakfast with him and then I said yes and then I kept debating whether to consider it a date or not and then he came and then we ate breakfast together and then the raiders came and then he left and I didn't see him again."

"Oh, so he _asked _you to eat with him. That's why he came to our room in the morning."

I blushed again and nodded my head.

"Well, what about the 'date-not-a-date' thing?" Isabel asked.

"Well, he asked me to breakfast and then I asked him if it was a date or not and he replied with something like, 'Well, that depends on whether or not you consider it a date.' I couldn't get that out of my head. I kept wanting it to be a date, but then again I didn't think it should be, you know?"

"Not really," Isabel replied. "But it's your life and your decisions. I'm only here to make sure you're on time."

I cracked a smile. "And to help me with my boy problems."

Isabel shook her head. "If you want to add that, it's going to be an extra four gold pieces per hour."

I looked at her. Isabel held a straight face. I gave her a glare.

"Fine," she said. I smiled. "Two gold pieces." I gave her another glare. "One?" She asked hopefully. Another glare. "Fine. I'll work for free, but only because I like you."

"Thanks Isabel."

"No problem Annabeth. Now what do you want to do about it?"

"I don't know. I guess just wait for the update from Abby." Isabel nodded her head.

"Yeah, I guess that's all we can do."

"But the thing is," I said, "I can't stop thinking about him. He was by my side for that party and the breakfast but that was it. I want him by my side so bad, but now that he isn't I can't help but feel alone all the time."

"Sounds like someone's in love," Isabel said. Love? Now I wasn't so sure about that.

"I don't think I'm in love yet, but I definitely like Percy a lot."

"Wait, what?" Isabel said flustered. "Did you just admit you like Percy? You _always_ deny my claims. Always."

"Percy's different," I said. "He's cute, smart, funny, confident. Anything I could ask for in a guy."

"Oh wow. You really do like him, don't you?" I nodded my head. "Ok, well we should think on the bright side then. He's going to be at the Championships, remember?"

The Championships. I almost forgot Percy was attending. That raised my spirits. But then another thought occurred to me.

"That's over two months away though."

"Yeah," Isabel said. "But if you really like him as much as you say you do, you can wait that long to see him again."

* * *

I thought about what Isabel said for a long time. 'If you really like him as much as you say you do, you can wait that long to see him again.' That really stuck with me and I managed to make it through the next two months along with the help of the letters from Abby.

Those letters kept me sane. Abby kept telling me that Percy was doing fine in Germany (when I asked what he was doing in Germany, Abby told me he was seeing some long lost relatives), and that he couldn't wait to get back into the UK. When he did return, Abby said, he couldn't wait to travel to London and compete. He was doing some super-hard training and he looked to be in top condition, although how Abby could tell she didn't tell me.

Before I knew it, it was thirteen days before the start of the Championships and I was helping my father with the arrangement plans.

"Ok, so we're going to place 10, 11 and 12 in the west wing and then 13, 14 and 15 can be in the east wing," he said. "1 through 9 and 16 can be in the center."

I frowned. My room was in the west wing of the castle and Percy with 13 was in the east.

"Why can't 13, 14 and 15 be in the west and 10, 11 and 12 in the east?" I asked him.

"The Scottish always stay in the west, Annabeth. You should know that. And you know how much they like their consistency. Just take your mother for instance."

"Oh, ok," I said disappointed.

"Is there a reason why you want it switched?" _Yes,_ I thought. _Definitely yes._

"No," I said out loud. "There's no real reason."

"Ok then, we'll keep it that way." I sighed inwardly so my dad wouldn't hear.

"Now to the arrivals," my dad continued. "1 and 16 are obviously here already. 5, 7 and 9 plan on arriving in two days. 2, 6, 8, 10 and 14 say they'll arrive three days later. A day after that will be 3, 4, 11 and 12. And finally 13 and 15 will arrive a day before the group separation which is six days before the competition starts."

_That means Percy arrives in a week, _I thought. I couldn't help but feel giddy. Percy would be here in a week. A week. After two months, I was only a week away from seeing him again.

"Ok, that works," I said, a huge smile on my face.

"Why are you so happy?" My dad asked me.

"Uh, no reason," I said quickly, wiping the smile off my face. "I'll see you at dinner dad." I got up and left.

As I was running out of the room he said, "It better be the right guy this time."

I blushed and kept running.

* * *

The days went by. Before I knew it, well actually that's a lie. I was counting down the days until I saw Percy, so I knew that today was the day he would arrive. Fourteen of the other sixteen competitors were already here, and we only needed two more; the one from N.I. and Percy.

There was a lot of buzz just after dawn, but it only turned out to be the competitor from N.I. Percy finally showed up just after lunch. And I wanted to kiss him right then and there, but I couldn't.

Percy's contingent was a little smaller than the rest of the districts, but still impressive, probably because of what _wasn't_ in the contingent.

Lord Ares and his wife led the contingent. They were on horseback just like everyone else. Percy and Ashton followed them and Abby and Rayne were behind the two guys. Bringing up the rear was a single carriage, presumably carrying all of their belongings, and then twelve armed guards. But that wasn't the impressive part. Ok, well Percy was impressive, but he always is.

The impressive part was this: Behind the official contingent were peasants, hundreds of them, all either carrying signs representing District 13 or signs cheering for Percy. And all of them were singing. It was easily the most impressive entrance I had seen in my experience with the Championships.

As Percy rode by me towards my parents, who were waiting for him on the front steps of the castle, he gave me a smile and a wink. I blushed and Isabel, who was standing next to me, gave me a giggle and a poke in the side. I began to poke her back, but stopped once my dad began to talk.

"Lord Ares," he said. "It's a great pleasure, like always." Everyone in the contingent had dismounted by this time.

"The pleasure's all mine, my lord," Ares returned, while bowing.

"Lady Allyson, Princess Rayne, it is great to see you two again."

"Likewise, my lord," they replied.

"Lord Ashton, congratulations."

"Thank you, your highness."

"Lady Abigail." My dad just bowed to her.

"Your highness," Abby replied, while curtsying.

"Am I forgetting anyone?" My dad asked. "No? Ok, let us continue inside the castle."

I looked back at Percy. He just had a smile on his face. Abby, however, was freaking out next to him. You could hear her over the crowd's chuckles.

"Wait, did he talk with you? I think he forgot you." Abby turned away from Percy. "Wait, my lord!"

"It's fine, Abby," Percy said loudly. "I would rather have him forget me now than forget me when I'm standing before him after I win."

Everything was silent. My dad turned back around.

"Well played, Lord Jackson. Well played indeed." My dad turned around once more.

"Thank you, my lord." Percy paused. "Just keeping you in line is all." My dad stopped again. He looked like he was about to turn around again, but decided against it.

They headed into the castle and I decided I better follow them.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Hey, great news! As I was trying to finish the story, I realized I couldn't fit everything into 13 chapters, so now there are officially 15 chapters in TPATP! Isn't that awesome?**

**Question of the Chapter: Would you rather be stuck in jail with your best friend or stuck on an uninhabited island with your worst enemy? I would go best friend in jail here, because you had to have done something pretty awesome to land yourself in jail. Either that or you were just stupid. But I wouldn't do something stupid to land myself in jail.**

**Make sure you review!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey, great job with the reviews last chapter, keep it up.**

**I know I haven't updated for a long time, but please don't kill me. Things kept coming up.**

**As most of you have been waiting for this for a long time, I'll cut right to the chase.**

**Here's Chapter Eleven of The Princess and the Peasant.**

**Disclaimer: I'm not Rick Riordan.**

* * *

Chapter Eleven: Percy POV

Germany was amazing. I got close with all of my cousins, but especially Sven and Carina. More with Carina though. Zeus and Hades taught me about the throne, about my heritage and about Germany in general. I learned a lot more German, and I could now hold an amateur conversation. Nothing like I could in English, but it was a start.

It was my last night in Germany. I would be leaving at first light the next morning.

I was walking with Carina outside. It was a cool night. The sky was clear, the stars were out and a slight breeze could be felt.

"So, you're leaving tomorrow," Carina said, sounding sad.

"Yeah, Sven's taking me back to the UK." Carina grabbed my hand, which wasn't unusual these days. Our fingers interlocked and our clasped hands swung back and forth.

"I don't want you to leave, Percy."

"I know," I said. "But I have a competition to be in." I stopped walking and looked at her. "I think, after this, after Worlds, I think I want to come back here. You know, live here with the rest of my cousins. Bring Abby and maybe see if my mom wants to come back. Germany's an amazing place and after learning my heritage and meeting you guys, I want to be around that." Carina was starting to cry. "But, I don't think I could do that."

"What? Why?" Carina asked.

"To tell you the truth, it's because of a girl."

Carina looked at me as if I had just told her that her dog died. Not crying, just standing there in utter disbelief, not believing what she just heard.

"You're not serious?" She asked. "You would basically give up your entire German heritage just because of a single girl? Who is she, the Queen of France?"

I laughed. "I've never been to France, remember? And anyway, she's married to the King of France."

"So?"

I laughed again. "Never mind."

"Well, who is she?"

"Well, uh," I looked down at the ground. To be honest, I never told anyone in Germany about Annabeth. Not even Carina, who I told just about everything. "She's a princess," I started.

"Of where?" Carina probed.

"Uh, the UK?" It was more of a question than a statement. Carina's smile turned quickly into a frown.

"Her? I met her in France once. She's a stuck-up little bitch."

"Whoa!" I said. "No she isn't."

"Yeah she is. She thinks she's all special just because she has red hair and everything." I smiled. Red hair? Carina continued, "And then she runs around the room constantly whining and-" She stopped abruptly. "Why are you smiling?"

"We're not talking about the same person," I said simply.

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah, Annabeth has blonde hair."

"Who's Annabeth?"

I rolled my eyes.

"She's my sister," I said sarcastically. "Who do you think she is?"

Carina seemed to get it. "Oh."

"Yeah, and as far as I know, she doesn't have red hair."

"Ok, then never mind. I'll have to get that sorted out."

I laughed. "Yeah, you better do that."

Carina gave me a shy smile.

"So, we should probably be heading back now," she said.

"What?" I said. "Can't I hang with my favorite cousin for a couple of hours?"

"But you should get some sleep before your journey tomorrow."

"You really want to get rid of me, huh?" I asked. Carina shook her head and tried to ramble on, but I cut her off, "I'll just sleep on Blackjack tomorrow. Sven'll be with me, so Blackjack will just have to follow him."

"Oh, you sure?" Carina asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

"Ok." Carina paused for several seconds before talking again. "It'll be weird not having you at the castle after a month of seeing you every day."

"Yeah, I know. It'll be weird for me too, because I'll get back to the UK and I'll be trying to translate what they're saying, when I'll realize that they're speaking in English. It'll be different."

Carina laid her head on my shoulder. By this time we had begun walking again. I wrapped my arm around her shoulder.

"Hey, think of it this way," I said. "If all goes well, I'll be back here in July. You can hold out until then, right?"

Carina gave me a shy smile. "I guess so."

"And we'll keep in touch. I'll write you a letter when I get home."

"Ok."

Carina and I continued to walk around the castle grounds. Eventually we had to call it a night. It was already past midnight and I was leaving at first light. Carina promised me that she would be up to see me off and then we went our separate ways to our rooms.

* * *

In the morning, Carina and Sven were waiting for me. As well as both of my uncles, Aunt Hera and the rest of my cousins. Lord Aldrich wasn't there, but I had already said good-bye to him at my last training session yesterday.

Zeus and Hades both gave me a handshake and expressed their gratitude towards my mother for allowing me to come to Berlin.

Hera gave me a hug and a kiss on the forehead and reminded me to keep in touch with my family.

Dieter and Katinka both wished me well and I gave each of them a hug. Adler and Elisabeth basically did the same thing, except I ruffled Adler's hair and told him to keep training.

Last but not least were Sven and Carina.

"Don't look at me," Sven said. "I still have five days with you."

I rolled my eyes and turned towards Carina. She walked up to me and wrapped her arms around my neck. I returned the hug.

"Travel safe Percy," she said.

"I will," I replied.

"And you better be back here in July, or else I'm going to come after you with a knife." I imagined Carina running after me with a knife. I laughed at the thought.

"I'll keep that in mind." We broke apart from our hug. Carina gave me a kiss on the cheek before I mounted Blackjack.

"Be safe Percy. Remember to write every day."

"Doesn't that hurt the environment, wasting all that paper?"

Carina rolled her eyes at me. "You know what I mean."

I laughed. "Yeah," I said. "I'll see you in July, Carina."

"You better." She reached up and gave me one last kiss on the cheek. I said good-bye to the rest of my relatives and Sven and I started our long journey back to Wales.

* * *

"Percy, come on!" Abby yelled at me. "You can write your response to Carina later. Ares wants you in his study now!"

I sighed and got up from my writing desk. It was twelve days before the start of the Championships. I knew we had to be leaving in a couple of days at max. I grabbed my sword and followed Abby out of the room. Three minutes later we were sitting in Ares' study. Rayne, Ashton and Lady Allyson were also there.

"Ok, we have everyone here that we need," Lord Ares said. "This will be a short meeting. Percy, as you are aware, or I hope that you are aware, the Championships start in twelve days. The group separation will be drawn six days before the beginning of the competition, which is six days from now. I have informed King Frederick that we will be arriving the day before that separation, which is five days away. It's a two day journey to London, so we will be leaving in three days. I expect you all to be packed by lunch the day after tomorrow. You are dismissed."

The four of us got up to leave, but Lord Ares spoke again.

"Oh, and Percy," he said. "We are going to have training for the next two days, but I'll give you off the day before we leave. That way you can travel to Nefyn to say good-bye to your mother. Abby, you may go with him."

"Thank you, my lord," I replied. Abby and I returned to our room, where Carina's letter still lay on the writing desk. Abby walked over to it and picked it up.

"Percy, you need to write her back before we leave. She's not going to send the letters to London, so you need to answer her and tell her where you'll be for the next couple of weeks."

"Yeah, I know," I replied.

"Ok, well get packing. You can answer her later if you don't know what to say."

"Ok, that sounds like a good idea," I said. "Hey, I'm going to head down to the market. Want me to pick you up anything?"

"Yeah, can you get a loaf of bread? I could use some warm bakery bread right now."

"Ok, sure."

I headed down to the market and got the bread, which was very good, as well as some other items. The days passed by. I eventually answered Carina and got my bag packed for London. I had my last two training sessions before our journey, but Ares informed me that I would have more training when we got to London. That's why Ashton was coming along with us. Abby and I visited our mom, who gave us both hugs and she wished me the best of luck. I thanked her and Abby and I had one last terrific meal from the restaurant before returning to Caemarfon.

The journey, even though it was two days, didn't seem that long to me. I guess Germany had prepared me for the long trip.

King Frederick's banter was laughable and I loved 'keeping him in line,' as I said. We all dismounted our horses and followed him into the castle. He welcomed us to London, as was tradition, and said dinner would be ready in just over two hours. I noticed Annabeth standing over in a corner and I smiled at her.

We were led to our rooms. Traditionally, the competitor had a room to himself, as was the case with me. Ashton and Rayne had a room to my left and Lord Ares and Lady Allyson had the room to my right. Abby had been offered to stay with Isabel for the duration of the tournament and she accepted.

My belongings had been delivered to my room rather quickly, something that I was grateful for. The six of us went our separate ways and I was alone in my room. Less than five minutes later, there was a knock on my door. Intrigued, I got up and opened it, wondering who it was.

A bundle of blonde hair jumped into me, practically making me fall to the floor. I held my ground and the mystery person wrapped their arms around my waist.

"Hey Percy," a recognizable voice said. I brushed the hair out of her eyes and found her startling gray eyes looking at me.

"Hey Annabeth," I said, returning her hug. "Did you miss me?"

She smiled. "Just a little bit." I smiled back at her and walked over and closed the door, which was still open. "So," Annabeth said, "you ready for this competition or what?"

"Yeah, I am," I replied. "I can't wait for the draw tomorrow night. It'll be interesting to see who I have to beat."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. The draw can be the difference between winning it all and not getting out of your group."

I looked at her.

"When did you become so intelligent?" I asked.

"I've _always_ been intelligent," she replied.

"Well, I knew that," I said. "I just didn't know you knew so much about the Championships."

"Percy," she said exasperated, "I've lived here all my life. I probably know more about the Championships then you do."

"Oh, really?" I said. "Is that a challenge?"

"No, it isn't," Annabeth replied. At that moment, there was another knock on the door. Since I was still right next to the door, I didn't have that far to reach it.

I opened it to find Lord Ares. He looked surprised to find Annabeth in my room.

"Oh, well hello, my lady," he said.

"Uh, hi Lord Ares," Annabeth replied awkwardly.

"I didn't think you would have anyone else in here Percy," he said to me.

"She's only been here for a minute," I replied. Ares gave me a smug smile. "Honest."

"Ok, if you say so," he said. "Are you unpacked yet?"

"No."

"Ok, well make sure you change into your dinner attire. We have to look formal tonight."

"Is that the white or the black one?"

"The black one. The white one is for the separation tomorrow."

"Ok, thanks. I will make sure I change into that before I leave."

"Sounds good. I'll see you at dinner then." With that, Lord Ares left, closing the door behind him.

"Ok," I said, turning towards Annabeth. "I should probably change now, so I don't have to worry about it later."

"What?" Annabeth said. "Do you need my permission? The bathroom's right there."

I rolled my eyes and walked into the bathroom. I changed into our 'dinner attire' for that night, which consisted of a black polo shirt, red dress pants and red dress shoes. I also had a solid white cape, but I would put that on in the bedroom. When I walked out of the bathroom, Annabeth gave me a smile.

"You look nice," she said.

"Oh shut up," I replied, wrapping the cape around my neck.

"No, seriously," she said. "I think it looks good on you."

I rolled my eyes. "If you say so."

Annabeth rolled her eyes back at me and grabbed my arm. "Come on Percy, get your stuff unpacked. I want to give you a tour."

"Fine."

I unpacked my things and within ten minutes Annabeth and I were walking around the crowded castle grounds. To be honest, she wasn't really giving me a tour. We were just walking and talking, which was fine by me. She asked me about Germany and I was careful not to give away my royalty status. That would have to be saved until the finals. I asked her how she was doing and she told me she was fine. Just busy getting prepared for the Championships. We continued to talk back and forth like this for a long time. Eventually the dinner horn was sounded and I followed her to the massive dining hall, which was four or five times the size of the one at Caemarfon. Tables were set up everywhere and after a couple of minutes I finally found the sign for District 13 near the front of the hall. Everyone else was already there.

"See you later Percy," Annabeth said. I gave her a quick hug and sat down at our table. Everyone was looking at me.

"What?" I asked. They all looked away.

Dinner went smoothly that night. We had been announced, as well as District 15, who had arrived earlier in the day. The food was excellent and before I knew it, dinner was over. Ares told me to be up bright and early tomorrow morning as we had gotten the first training session in the arena. I made my way up to my room and, not surprisingly, Annabeth was waiting for me. I opened the door and Annabeth followed me inside. I changed out of my 'dinner attire' and into clothes more comfortable. Annabeth still had on her simple white dress and we made our way outside. We continued to walk around the castle grounds enjoying the festivities and talking. Four hours later we decided to call it a night. I walked Annabeth to her room, which was quite extravagant. I asked her if she really needed twenty pillows and she responded by glaring at me. I laughed.

"Good night Annabeth," I said.

"Night Percy."

I made my way back to my room, where I fell asleep quickly.

* * *

The next day went by very quickly. Before I knew it, I was standing in Lord Ares' room with Ashton, Rayne and Abby. We were about ready to head down to the dining hall where the draw would be announced. Lord Ares finally came out of the bathroom and Lady Allyson grabbed his arm. They were both sporting the attire that the rest of us had on. Ares, Ashton and I each had on a white dress shirt with a white tie, white dress pants and white dress shoes. Ashton and I both had our sleeves rolled up to our elbows. We also wore a black and red cape. Our swords were by our sides. Lady Allyson, Rayne and Abby each wore a white dress that came down to their knees. They all had red heels on and red gloves covered their hands. All three of them wore red bead necklaces.

The six of us made our way down to the dining hall, where I split off from the group, joining the other competitors outside the dining hall. We would each enter one-by-one when our district was announced. Ares and the other four entered the dining hall.

I turned towards my competitors. Most of them looked to be in their twenties or early thirties. There was one kid that looked to be younger than me, maybe sixteen or a very young seventeen. The rest of the guys were older than me though. A couple of the guys came over to me and introduced themselves. District 2. District 5. 7. 8. 14. The young kid was the one from N.I., District 15. Other than that though, the other competitors ignored me, which I was fine with.

Eventually the dining hall was filled and we began to walk into the hall. They would call your district, your name and then there would be a bunch of cheering. This repeated itself twelve times before I was set to go in.

"District 13, Caemarfon, Wales. Representing District 13 is Percy Jackson."

I walked through the open doors. Ares told me to smile and wave a lot, so that's what I did. Right before I got seated, I looked up at Annabeth and gave her a wink.

The last three competitors made their way in and took a seat. King Frederick stood up.

"Very well. Thank you Lord Greicher for introducing our competitors. First off, I would like to welcome all of you to London to compete in this year's Championships. It is a great honor for all of you. I would like to welcome back Lord Henderson, our four-time defending champion from Inverness, Scotland, as well his teacher, Lord Ramsey, our current reigning champion." Applause rang throughout the hall. "We have several new faces here this year. District 6, District 13, District 15, we are glad you could join us." A smaller bout of applause rose up. "And to the rest of you, we are glad to see you back here as well. This should be a very interesting tournament, just like in previous years. Ok, now we are here for important business. Lord Ramsey, could you please bring the cauldron?"

The cauldron. It was the name they used for the bowl that held the competitors district numbers in it. Lord Ramsey walked up to King Frederick with the bowl in his hands.

"Ok, here we go. Tradition states that District 1 will be in Group A and District 16 will be in Group B. This has already been established. We will move onto Group C. District 2 could you please send your representative up to pick a contestant for Group C."

Ares told me that each representative from each district except for 1 and 16 would have to pick a strip of paper to place a district in a group. That way there could be no cry for cheating or fixing of the groups.

"District 6," the representative from District 2 said, showing the crowd the piece of paper.

"Thank you," King Frederick said. "Pencil 6 into C for all of you making your own table out there. Now, District 6, please send your representative up to the stage. We are at Group D."

The representative from District 6 picked a piece of paper from the cauldron.

"District 9," he said, showing the paper to the audience.

"Very well," Frederick said. "That's 9 into D. District 9, please send your representative. We move back to Group A."

"District 15," the representative from District 9 said, showing the paper to the crowd.

"15 into A," the King said. "Send your representative. Onto Group B."

"District 10," District 15's representative said.

Now that sent a murmur flying through the crowd. The four-time defending champ was being paired with the King's choice for the Championships. Anyone else picked into that group would surely be a goner.

"Interesting. That's 10 into B," Annabeth's dad said. "Lord Henderson, if you could."

"District 2," he said, showing the paper to the crowd.

"Very well, that's 2 into C. Would you like to come back up?" The King asked.

District 2's representative walked back onto the stage.

"District 12."

"12 into D. Back up at Group A now," Frederick said.

"District 11," the representative from 12 said.

"11 into A. Group B," King Frederick said.

"District 3," said 11's representative. The six districts that hadn't been called took a huge sigh of relief.

"Ok, 3 into B. Onto Group C," the King said.

"District 8," 3's representative said.

"8 into C. Group D," King Frederick said.

"District 7," 8's representative said.

"That's 7 into D. One more round. Back up to Group A," the King said.

I was starting to get worried now. We still hadn't been called.

"District 5," the representative from 7 called.

"5 into A. 3 left. Onto Group B," King Frederick said.

"District 13," said the representative from 5. I swore under my breath. Of course I would be put into the hardest group. I got out of my seat and started to walk towards the stage. I didn't even look at Annabeth, which was probably stupid.

"That's 13 into B for all of you still keeping track. Two more to go. Group C," Frederick said.

I walked up and placed my hand into the cauldron. King Frederick was giving me a wry smile. I pulled out the piece of paper.

"District 4," I said.

"Ok, that's 4 into C and that leaves District 14 with the honor of going into Group D," the King said. "Now here are the groups." He grabbed a piece of paper from one of his assistants. "Group A consists of Districts 1, 5, 11 and 15. Group B will be Districts 3, 10, 13 and 16. C includes Districts 2, 4, 6 and 8. And finally Group D will be Districts 7, 9, 12 and 14. The first match-ups will be posted here in the dining hall tomorrow morning. I hope you all enjoyed the presentation. Now get some rest, because I'm sure tomorrow is a hard training day for each of you."

I walked back off the stage towards Ares and the rest of our crew. It was pretty clear I wasn't happy.

"Don't worry about it Percy," Abby said. "You should do fine."

I snorted. "Yeah, sure I will. I better go save up my energy so I can get pounded next week."

With that I trudged off towards my room, leaving the five of them behind me.

* * *

**So, what did you think? Did I do a good job with the separation of the groups or was it a little over the top? I tried to make it flow and still have the necessary information, but tell me what you think.**

**Now for update information: Chapter 12 will be up on Thursday with Chapter 3 of The Big Three up on next Monday. I've strayed away from TB3 a lot, so I'm hoping to get back on track with that.**

**Also, check out PurpleQueen981's profile page and vote on their poll. I would really appreciate it.**

**Question of the Chapter: If you could describe Annabeth with one noun other than princess what would it be? Answers are greatly appreciated.**

**Make sure to review!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey guys, make sure you keep the reviews up. Thanks.**

**This is Chapter 12. Only three more chapters after this one. Chapter 12 is pretty long. The competition actually starts and we get some special romance going on at the end. I think you guys will like it.**

**Anyway, enough of me talking. Here's Chapter Twelve of The Princess and the Peasant.**

**Disclaimer: I'm not Rick Riordan.**

* * *

Chapter Twelve: Annabeth POV

I knocked on Percy's door for the fifth time. He must be really pissed about getting into Group B if he wasn't answering me.

"Annabeth, go away," he said through the door.

"Not unless you talk with me first."

"I just did," was his snarky reply.

"Oh shut up and open this door Percy."

Five seconds later, the door swung open. Percy stood there, glaring at me.

I stepped into the room before he could stop me.

"Why are you so pissed?" I asked him once I got into the room.

"Gee, I wonder why?" He replied sarcastically.

"Percy, it's not the end of the world."

"Well, it ought to be. I have the four-time defending champ and the King's choice in my group."

Ok, that's it. I walked straight up to him and looked him in his amazing sea green eyes, which was kind of tough since I was four inches shorter than him.

"You said you were coming here to win this thing, right?"

"Yeah, so?" He said dismissively.

"Well, in order to win, you would have had to beat the defending champion anyway, right?"

It was a couple of seconds before he answered.

"Uh, yeah."

"Ok, so why does it matter that he's in your group rather than in the knockout stage!" I yelled at him.

"Uh," he replied.

"Oh my gods Percy, you're so dense!" I walked out of his room, slamming his door behind me. I walked by Rayne and Ashton's room. I was barely five feet past it when their door opened.

"Annabeth?" Rayne asked. "What was that slamming?"

I ignored her and kept walking.

"Annabeth," Rayne yelled at me.

I ignored her again.

"Annabeth!" Someone grabbed my shoulder. It was Rayne.

"What do you want, Rayne?"

"What's going on?" She asked.

"Percy's being a douche, that's what's going on!" I yelled back at her.

"What?"

"He's being dense!" I paused. "You know what, why don't you just ask him. I'm going to sleep."

With that, I walked off, leaving Rayne standing in the middle of the hallway wondering what just happened.

* * *

The schedule for the first round came out the next day. Percy got a lucky drawing and was set to face the guy from District 3 first. They would be the third duel of the day.

The days went on and I kept ignoring Percy, even though he kept wanting to talk with me. Finally I gave in on the first day of the competition. Percy approached me at breakfast.

"Annabeth," he started.

I sighed and turned towards him.

"What do you want Percy?" I asked exasperated. Percy looked surprised that I answered.

"I just wanted to say sorry. You were right. I wasn't thinking straight."

"You are never thinking straight," I mumbled.

"What was that?" He asked.

"Nothing."

"I'm never thinking straight. Is that what I heard?"

"What if it was?" I challenged.

He smiled. "Then you're right." He paused. "Do you mind if I sit down?"

"Go ahead," I replied. Percy took the open seat to my right.

"Ooh, is that butter bread?" He reached onto my plate and took my roll.

"Hey," I said. "That's my roll. Give it back!" I tried reaching for it, but Percy held it just out of my reach.

"Just one bite," he said.

"No."

"Come on Annabeth, it's only one bite."

"Fine, but make it a smal-" Percy took his bite alright. He ate around half of the roll. "Percy!"

"Here you go," he said, handing me back the half-eaten roll.

"You're so immature Percy," I said. "A bite does not consist of eating half the roll."

"It does in my world." I rolled my eyes at him and finished the roll. "So, are you going to watch my duel today?"

I rolled my eyes again. "Percy, I'm the princess. I _have_ to watch every duel."

"Oh, right."

I laughed.

"Well, I guess I'll be going," I said. "I still need to get dressed for the duels today."

"Oh, ok then," he replied. I stood up to leave when Percy grabbed my arm. "Wait, Annabeth. Uh, can I ask you a question?"

"You just did."

"What?"

"You just asked me a question." When Percy's look of confusion didn't clear I continued, "Yes, you may ask me a question."

"Well, you know we have that ball tonight, right?"

"Yeah," I said, wondering where this was headed.

"And, well, I was, uh, wondering if you wanted to, uh, be my date?" He rushed the last three words. I smiled.

"I would love to," I replied happily. "When should I expect you?" Percy gave me a huge smile.

"Well, there's what? Two hours between the last duel and the beginning of the ball, right?"

"I think so, yeah."

"Well, I guess I'll just come to your room a half-hour before the start of the ball then. It's just like the draw, we're going to walk in district-by-district."

"Percy, I know that. I've been to these before."

"Oh, right. Just checking. So does that sound good?"

"Yeah, that's fine."

"Ok, I'll see you in the arena then."

I laughed at his nervousness. "Yeah, I'll see you then."

With that we went our separate ways.

* * *

Two hours later I was sitting in the arena next to my parents when Percy and the competitor from District 3 walked out to the center of the arena. They each bowed towards my dad. Percy gave me a wink. I smiled back at him.

"This is Group B action!" The announcer yelled. "On the north side of the arena, we have District 3 and on the south side we have District 13!" Cheers arose when the districts were announced. "Competitors prepare for battle!" Percy and the other competitor put on their helmets and drew their swords. They tapped the other's sword and backed away to where eight feet of space separated them. "Very well! You may now begin!"

Immediately the person from District 3 rushed at Percy. He looked to be pretty quick, but Percy handled him with ease. It was weird, but for some reason, it seemed like Percy was holding something back. He was barely blocking the attacker's strokes. It seemed like Percy was struggling against the attacker's quickness, but I knew Percy was faster than that. But why wasn't he showing it?

Finally something seemed to click and Percy's strokes became quicker. He continued to defend and eventually was able to turn the tables and go on offense. He continued to struggle there. None of his strokes were reaching the defender's armor. His strokes were slow and something was wrong. I knew Percy was much quicker than this. I saw him train for ten minutes in Wales and his quickness was insanely good. Now it looked like he was fighting at half-speed. Not even. Maybe quarter-speed at best. I searched the crowd and eventually found Lord Ares. He was smiling like this was the best show Percy could put on. That's when I knew something was up. I turned back to the duel.

After around six or seven minutes of switching between offense and defense, Percy was finally able to disarm the guy from District went up from the southern portion of the arena, where Percy's supporters were situated.

Something was definitely up and I was absolutely sure of it when Percy took off his helmet to bow to my dad. When he took off his helmet, he was barely sweating. If he really was locked in a tight duel like that he would have been sweating like crazy. I would have to ask him about it tonight.

The rest of the duels were interesting, but I wasn't really paying attention. Ok, the duel after Percy was good, because it was 10 versus 16; the defending champion versus the King's choice. The guy from District 10 eventually won after a long, hard fought duel, but it had to be the best duel on the first day of the Championships.

Once the duels were over, I had two hours until the beginning of the ball. Isabel joined me in my room and she helped me get ready. She already had her dress on; a simple pale blue one that came down to her ankles.

I had picked out my dress for this ball a long time ago, even before Rayne's birthday party. It was a dress that practically touched the floor when I put it on. Even with heels, the dress was only one or two inches off of the ground at max. It was a deep forest green color and was strapless. A gold ribbon-like portion wound around the top of the dress and then crossed over my stomach in an 'X' before ending at my hips. I absolutely loved this dress to death.

Not like it really mattered, since you couldn't see them, but I had forest green heels on as well.

When Percy arrived right on time, I was surprised with what he wore. Percy had on a forest green dress shirt that matched my dress and a white tie. He wore a solid white blazer over the dress shirt as well as white dress pants and white dress shoes. All-in-all, he complemented me perfectly.

"You look amazing Annabeth," Percy said, holding a single rose out towards me. I blushed.

"Thanks Percy," I replied, taking the rose. It smelled amazing. "But if I may ask, how did you know to go with the forest green shirt?"

"Well, I had to match my date, didn't I?" I blushed again.

"Well yeah, but how did you know I was wearing this dress tonight?"

"I have my sources," he said. When I gave him a glare he continued, "Ok, fine. Isabel told me."

I looked over at Isabel.

"Hey," she said. "You two needed to match. It wouldn't look good to be the only couple not matching at the ball. I'm sure all of the other competitors already had their dates picked out and what they were going to wear and everything. I just saved you the embarrassment."

I smiled gratefully at her. When she put it like that, I was very grateful of her proper decision to show Percy my dress. And in such short notice too.

"Thanks Isabel. I don't know what I would do without you."

"Probably wither and die," she replied. I gave her a look. "What? It's probably true." I rolled my eyes and turned back towards Percy.

"Are you ready to go?" I asked him.

"When you're ready, I'm ready," he replied. I gave him a smile.

"Ok, let's get going then."

"Wait," Isabel said. "Let me go before you. That way I can warn everyone to expect to be amazed when you show up. Less fainting that way." I looked at Isabel and then at Percy. She had to be kidding, right?

"Probably a good idea," Percy said. "You do look amazing Annabeth." I blushed again. Why was he making me blush so much tonight?

"Ok, I'll see you guys down there. Remember Annabeth, don't start crying. It'll ruin your amazingness." I glared at her. Isabel laughed. "I'll see you down there." Isabel finally left. I turned towards Percy.

"Ready to go?" He asked. I sniffed the rose one last time and set it on my bedside dresser.

"Yeah, let's get going."

I took Percy's arm and we started our walk down the long spiral staircase. We went slowly because one, I was in heels, and two, I didn't want to fall and ruin my dress.

After around ten minutes of walking down the long spiral staircase we finally made it to the bottom. Percy held the door open for me like a gentleman and we continued to make our way towards the dining hall. As we were walking, Percy finally decided to bring up a really important question.

"So, do we sit at the head table or at the District 13 table?" He asked.

I stopped walking and looked at him.

"Wait, you didn't figure that out beforehand?" I asked.

"Uh, no."

I rolled my eyes.

"Well you better figure that out before we walk in or else I'm going to kill you."

"Ok. Uh, let's do it this way. I'll walk in and talk with Ares about it real quick and meet you back outside the hall. Does that sound good?"

"Percy, there's like five minutes until the start of the ball."

"Yeah, I know. That's why I have to make it quick. Now come on." He grabbed my arm again and we restarted our trek towards the dining hall.

When we got there, he turned towards me.

"Ok, wait here," he said. "I'll be back in under a minute." Percy sprinted into the very crowded dining hall. I rolled my eyes and walked over to the other competitors and their dates. Almost everyone else was in the dining hall already.

I knew everyone was staring at me, but no one said anything. It was extremely awkward. Finally, thirty seconds later, just as you could hear everyone quiet down, Percy returned.

"Ok, here's the deal," he said. "You are sitting at the head table like always, but I can't join you there, so-"

"Then where are you sitting?" I cut in.

"If you let me explain maybe I can tell you. I'm still sitting at my district table, but when we walk in, I'm going to walk you up to your seat and then walk back and sit down in mine, ok?"

"Ok, that sounds good."

"Good, because the introductions are starting."

We slowly started inching up towards the doors as the districts were announced. They were at District 9 when Percy whispered to me.

"By the way, your dad looked like he was freaking out because you weren't there. Did you forget to tell him that you're going with me?"

My eyes widened. My hand flew up to cover my mouth. I had forgotten to tell my father not to expect me for before the introductions. He was probably going to kill me now.

"You forgot, didn't you?"

I nodded my head.

"Oh well," Percy said. "He's going to find out where you were in a couple of seconds."

I was still freaking out. There was only one more district before us. Percy gave me a look.

"Annabeth, calm down. I'll make sure to explain everything to your father. You're going to make us look bad when we walk in."

"You sure that you'll handle it?" I asked nervously.

"I have it under control," he replied calmly.

I took a deep breath and regained my composure.

"Ok, I'm good now."

"Good," Percy said. "Now let's go rock this party." I took ahold of his arm and we walked through the doors and into the dining hall.

"Representing District 13 is seventeen-year-old Percy Jackson. His hometown is Nefyn, Wales and his teacher is Lord Ares Warstriker." A small cheer went up. "Accompanying Lord Jackson as his date for this ball is the seventeen-year-old royal princess, Annabeth Chase. Royal Princess Chase lives here in the castle in London and as of right now appears to be officially taken."

I blushed at the last part, but continued walking. Everyone was looking at us, as was normal. But what wasn't normal was the fact that underneath the clapping was a sort of hushed silence, like people couldn't believe that I was finally asked to a ball. Or the fact that I was 'officially taken.' I wasn't sure which.

We walked past the District 13 table and towards the head table. I made eye contact with my father and a sense of understanding passed between us. His frown turned into a smile and a sense of relief passed through me.

Percy led me to my seat next to my mother, who was also smiling at me, or rather us. Percy pulled out my seat like a gentleman and I graciously took a seat. He gave me a final kiss on the hand before bowing to my parents and walking back to his seat.

The clapping quieted down and the announcer continued, "Representing District 14…"

The last three competitors entered with their dates and dinner was finally served. Once there was food in front of me, however, my mother broke out of her trance.

"And when were you going to tell us about your date, Annabeth?"

"I'm sorry mom-" I started, but my dad cut me off.

"Don't worry about it Athena," he said. "She made one little mistake in forgetting to tell us. Everyone forgets things sometimes. Just let it go."

"But you were the one furious that she was late to dinner."

"Athena," my dad said sternly. "Let it go."

My mother finally dropped the conversation and that's when I knew my dad wasn't mad at me.

"Thanks dad," I whispered to myself.

Dinner continued quietly and before I knew it the musicians had set up and were ready to play. The first dance at the Championships Ball was always only competitors dancing and it wasn't about to change this year. Percy collected me from the head table and we made our way to the dance floor. I grabbed one of Percy's hands in mine and placed the other one on his shoulder. Percy's free hand rested on my right hip.

The music started and the dancing began. This was real ballroom dancing. We would take a couple of steps back and forth and then Percy would twirl me around. Very soon I found myself laughing. People were looking at me, but I didn't really care. I was having such a great time. Songs came and went and I kept dancing with different people. I danced with Abby and Rayne and then Isabel. I danced with Ashton for a couple of songs, but I kept going back to Percy.

I finally seemed to settle down a little towards the end of the ball. Percy and I were sitting towards the edge of the dance floor. We were taking a break from dancing for a while.

"So, you seem to be having a good time," he said. I smiled at him.

"Yeah, this is the most fun I've had in a while."

"Any reason for that?" He asked.

I thought about it for a second. I guess there was a reason I was so happy.

"Yeah, I think so," I replied.

"And that would be what?" Percy probed.

"I think it was after the announcer introduced us. You remember him saying that I was 'officially taken' or whatever?"

"Uh, yeah. About that-" Percy trailed off. He wouldn't meet my eyes.

"Percy," I said, getting his attention. "Are we official?"

"No." It was my turn for my face to drop.

"Oh, ok," I said after a while. That's when Percy decided to surprise me.

"Do you want to be my girlfriend?"

"What?" I said, looking back up at him.

"Do you want to be my girlfriend?" He repeated.

"You're joking," I said, a blank look on my face. Percy shook his head. "But you just said we weren't official."

"We weren't," Percy replied. "Now I'm asking you if you want to be."

"Oh," was all I could manage. So many thoughts were running through my head right now.

"So, will you be my girlfriend?"

I looked up at him and into his amazing sea green eyes. To be honest, I don't really remember what happened next. The next thing I knew I was kissing him. When I realized what I was doing I pulled away quickly.

"Whoa," he said. "So I'm assuming your answer is 'Yes,' right?" I nodded my head sheepishly. "No need to be nervous Annabeth. You're the princess. You can do whatever you want." I smiled at him. That gave me my confidence back. "Now to answer your first question a little late, yes, we're official now."

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him into a hug. He kissed my cheek and then stood up. Percy held out his hand.

"So, your highness, may I have the pleasure of having this first dance as your boyfriend?"

I smiled at Percy again.

"As long as you give me the same pleasure of giving you this first dance as your girlfriend."

Percy smiled back at me.

"I promise you that much," he said.

I took Percy's hand. He led me to the dance floor and I wrapped my arms around his neck. He placed his hands on my hips and we danced the same way we did for our first dance. It was a short song, but that was fine by me. I still wouldn't change anything about our first dance. That is, our first dance as an official couple.

We left the party early. There were still five or six songs left, but Percy wasn't needed anymore and I was tired, so Percy took me back to my room. I changed out of my dress and took a quick shower. Percy was still waiting for me when I got out. I had put on the plain white dress that I used as a nightgown.

When I stepped out of the bathroom, I saw Percy had taken off his white blazer and tie and was holding them. He was sitting on the edge of the bed. I was feeling pretty confident, so I decided to ask him a pretty personal question.

"Hey Percy, can I sleep with you tonight?"

His head shot up in surprise.

"As long as your dad is fine with it," he eventually replied. I walked up to him and gave him a kiss.

"Percy, like you said, I'm the princess. I can do anything I want." He smiled at me.

"Fine. Are you ready to go?" He asked.

"Yeah, I am."

"Ok, hold these then." Percy handed me his blazer and tie. The next thing I knew I was swept off my feet. I yelped. I expected to hit the floor, but I was still in the air. That's when I realized Percy was carrying me. "Now are you good princess," he said, "or should we wait a little longer?"

I wrapped my one arm around his neck to steady myself and then answered him, "Yeah, I'm good. You just surprised me is all."

"Ok, then let's get going," Percy said. Percy carried me the entire way from my room to his room; from the west wing to the east wing. He only set me down in order to open the door to his room. He walked in and I followed him. Percy took the blazer and tie from me and set them down on a desk. He turned towards me.

"I'm going to get a shower," he said, "so unless you want to join me, you can't come in the bathroom." I grabbed a pillow from off of his bed and threw it at him.

"You're so immature Percy." Percy just laughed. "Get your shower." Percy laughed again and walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

Ten minutes later, Percy came back out of the bathroom wearing a white t-shirt and shorts. I was sitting at the writing desk waiting for him. He walked over to the bed.

"Are you coming over?" He asked. "Or are you sleeping at the writing desk?"

I rolled my eyes at him and walked over to the bed. Percy laid down first and then I climbed in next to him. His body gave off a lot of warmth, which I was grateful for. Percy's bed didn't have as many blankets as mine, so it was colder, but having Percy beside me made up for it. I closed my eyes.

"Night Annabeth," Percy mumbled against my hair.

"Night Percy," I responded.

And with that we fell asleep. Percy had a big day ahead of him.

* * *

**A/N:**

**So, what did you think? Are you guys happy? Sad? Excited? Tell me!**

**Update News: The Big Three Chapter 3 will be up on TUESDAY now, rather than Monday. That has changed from last chapter. Sorry for the inconvenience. Chapter 13 of TPATP will be up on next Thursday. We are quickly approaching the end.**

**In other words, if you want to check out what Annabeth's ball dress looks like, head over to my profile. The link to her dress is on there.**

**Question(s) of the Chapter: With Homecoming coming up, I've been wondering. Ladies, when dancing with a guy, do you prefer him to have a tie and blazer on or just a plain dress shirt? Guys, when dancing with a girl, do you prefer her to wear a long dress or a short dress?**

**For me, I would say it depends on the girl. But if you were going for an overall feeling, I would have to say short, but not too short. One of those dresses that ends around the knees is what I would say was perfect.**

**Shoot me your answers in the Review section.**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey, great job with the reviews guys, keep it up.**

**We only have three chapters remaining! Ahh, what am I going to do once this is done?**

**You guys need to help me out then.**

**Here's Chapter Thirteen of The Princess and the Peasant.**

**Disclaimer: I did not write Mark of Athena.**

* * *

Chapter Thirteen: Percy POV

I woke up to a blinding light in the doorway.

"Percy! Annabeth's missing!" That was Abby's voice.

My eyes shot open to a picture full of blonde. Something stirred next to me. It took me a second, but I realized it was Annabeth. That made me confused. I played back last night's events. Then I remembered. Annabeth had asked if she could sleep with me and I said yes.

Abby rushed into the room. "Percy, did you hear me? Annabeth's-" She stopped short when she saw Annabeth next to me. "Oh." Then she seemed to realize what happened. "Oh no." She rushed back out of the room, leaving the door open.

I rubbed my eyes. "Nice talking with you sis," I mumbled.

"What?" Annabeth said. She was obviously just waking up. I kissed her forehead.

"Morning sunshine."

"What was that all about?" She asked. I decided to play with her.

"Someone named Annabeth was missing?"

"Oh, ok." She seemed to relax for a second before she shot up. "Wait, what?"

I laughed. "It's ok, Abby will handle it." Annabeth relaxed again.

"Ok."

So we fell back asleep, not caring that the door was still open.

* * *

An FYI for the next time that you sleep with a daughter of a King: Make sure you close the door so he can't come striding into your room. Less bumps and bruises that way.

"You better have a good reason for having my daughter in your room at this hour," the King said. "We've been searching for two hours for her with no luck. And then I find out she was sleeping with a guy. A guy!"

I was so tempted to reply with, 'Would it be better that she was sleeping with a girl?' but I thought that might not be a good response to the person who was in charge of the entire country. Plus, he had five or six royal guards standing right behind him. I don't think they would have liked my joke either.

So I ended up saying, "Uh." To be honest, I didn't know what to say at all. That's when Annabeth saved me.

"Dad," she said, walking up to me and wrapping her arm around my waist, "can't I sleep with my boyfriend in private?"

I had to smile. Not only did she announce her relationship with me, but she managed to stun her own father.

"Uh, what are you talking about?" He asked.

"So, the answer is no," Annabeth replied. She turned towards me. "I'll meet you down at breakfast." She gave me a kiss and turned to walk out the door. The guards let her through.

It wasn't until after she left that I realized she just got out of explaining to her father and turned all the responsibility to me. King Frederick turned towards me expectantly.

After about fifteen seconds of awkward silence, he said, "Care to explain?"

Instead of answering the question, I tried to avoid it. Another FYI, don't try to avoid the King's questions.

"You know, your daughter's pretty clever."

He gave me a look. I now know who Annabeth gets her glare from.

"That doesn't explain this situation."

I swore at Annabeth under my breath and decided to take the plunge.

* * *

Thirty-five minutes later I was walking towards Annabeth's table in the dining hall rubbing my left arm. She was sitting with a bunch of girls. I stood to Annabeth's right and I waited for her to notice me.

Eventually she did.

"Hey, are you ok?" She asked innocently, a smile on her face.

"I hate you," I said, still rubbing the giant bruise that was forming on my left arm.

She looked around the table. The rest of the girls were smiling. "And why is that?"

"Well," I said nonchalantly, extending my left arm and placing it on her shoulder where the bruise was clearly visible, "I have to fight today. And you, your highness, just decreased my chances of winning by 50%."

All of the girls' smiles immediately turned into grimaces when they saw my arm. Annabeth took a while, but eventually she noticed the seven inch bruise that had formed on the inside of my left forearm.

"Oh my gods," she said, grabbing my arm. "Are you ok?"

"No," I said, grimacing myself when she touched the bruise. "I can barely feel my left arm."

"Oh my gods I'm so sorry. Can you still fight with it?" She gave me a look of concern.

"I don't think so," I said. "I haven't tried to lift anything with it, but I don't think a fifteen pound shield will do me any favors."

"Oh my gods, I'm sorry. We should get you to a healer. They can put some ice on it."

I grabbed her shoulder with my good arm.

"Annabeth, I fight in an hour. And your father told me to tell you that you better be in the arena on time today or else something bad is going to happen." I turned around to walk away, but then decided to save her. She was my girlfriend after all. "Oh, and Annabeth?" I said innocently.

"Yeah?"

"The first duel starts in ten minutes." I left her there sitting in her seat dumbfounded. It was probably a bad idea, but she deserved it after what she did to me.

I made my way up to Lord Ares' room. When he saw my bruise when I walked in, he demanded answers. I told him what happened and then he left furious to talk with the King. Lady Allyson helped by putting a wet cloth over top of the bruise. It started to feel better, but then she ruined it by telling me it would eventually get worse.

Five minutes later, Ares came swiftly back into the room, looking pissed.

"Ok," he said, turning towards me. "You may need to go all-out on this duel." I was about to protest when he held up his hand. "Yeah, I know the plan was to see if you can beat them without showing your true ability, but we may not be able to do that. One hit to that arm and you're done, Percy. Think about it this way. If you win this duel, you'll be 2-0 and through to the knockout round. We can withdraw you from you last duel against the defending champ and let you rest for the knockout stage. You'll go into the round at 2-1 and have a harder bracket, but you can still do it."

"No," I said immediately. "I've been undefeated for almost three years now. There's no way I'm withdrawing from a duel." I started to stand up, but my arm throbbed with pain. I winced and cried out.

Lord Ares' expression softened.

"Percy, look," he said. "We can't have you killing yourself over a single duel. If we need to withdraw you, we'll withdraw you. But you need to win this next duel today."

I thought about it for a long time.

"I'll need to see how good the guy today is first," I said. "Then I can decide on tomorrow based on how I feel."

Lord Ares looked at me for a couple of seconds before replying.

"Ok, that's fine with me. We should start heading down to the arena now."

Lord Ares helped me up and we started to walk out the door when Lady Allyson yelled out.

"Wait!" She said. "Percy take this." She handed me a thin green piece of cloth. It felt really cool. "Put that on your arm underneath your armor. It's nothing to heal it, but it should keep your arm a little cooler."

"Ok, thanks Lady Allyson."

Lord Ares and I made our way to the arena changing area and I was clutching my arm the entire way.

With the help of Lord Ares I managed to get all of my armor on. I slipped the green piece of cloth over my bruise and it felt a little better. It still hurt like hell, but it wasn't as bad as before.

"Ok," Lord Ares said. "Draw your sword." I looked at him. "If you can't do it now, you won't be able to do it in the arena. Now draw your sword."

I managed to get the sword out of its sheath, but my left arm exploded in pain. I dropped my sword and grabbed my left arm. I expected Lord Ares to pick it up for me, but he just stood there. I looked up at him.

"What?" He said. "You expect me to pick up your sword? I won't be in the arena for you. You better learn to be a man in the next five minutes or else you can say goodbye to your dreams of winning. Now sheath your sword and get out to the arena. You start in two minutes." With that he left me alone in the changing room.

I watched him go. Eventually I managed to get my sword back in its sheath, but not before more pain beyond measure. I was already sweating like crazy by the time I reached the center of the arena.

The announcer introduced us, "This is Group B action! On the north side of the arena, we have the King's representative, District 16, and on the south side we have District 13!" Cheers arose when the districts were announced. "District 13 is currently 1-0 and District 16 is 0-1. District 10 has already advanced out of this group by winning his duel over District 3 earlier today. Competitors prepare for battle!" I managed to put on my helmet. Now was the real test. I found Ares in the stands and channeled all of my anger into drawing my sword. I wasn't going to lose or withdraw in this tournament. I managed to get it out of its sheath without too much pain and I didn't drop it either. I managed a weak-hearted smile through my grimace and turned towards my competitor. We each tapped the other's sword and backed away to where eight feet of space separated us. "Very well! You may now begin!"

I think my competitor knew I was hurt. He immediately rushed at me.

I managed to keep him away from my left arm. I had a shield, but I knew one hit to it and my arm would be done. So I used my quickness with the sword to block all of his strokes.

I soon realized that he wasn't all that quick. He had a lot of power behind his strokes and that was what allowed him to win duels. He just pounded the opponent until they gave in. Also, every time he made a stroke at me, I noticed that there was a slight opening to his hilt of his sword. If I could use my quickness to hit it, I might be able to disarm him thus ending this duel quickly, which would allow me to be able to rest my arm more.

I decided 'what-the-heck' and I tried a shot at the hilt of his sword.

And I missed. Horribly.

In fact, I was almost disarmed myself, that's how bad it was. My competitor hit my sword with such power that I almost lost my grip on it, but because I had such a strong hand, I managed to hold onto my sword.

I kept him in check for a long time. My left arm was feeling pretty good (that is, it was only at a 10 on a scale of 1-10 rather than an 11 like it was earlier) and I kept thinking that I would be able to fight tomorrow if my arm continued like this.

That all changed when I fell for a pretty bad feint. I think the fact that my arm was hurting was affecting my thought process. My competitor feinted a backhand, but then went full power on an overhand. I had no way of getting my sword back in time, so I had to raise my shield. Bad decision. I would have rather taken the sword in the neck then on my arm.

The sword slammed against my left arm and I felt it go. I dropped the shield and it clattered to the ground. A gasp arose from the crowd.

My competitor didn't stop attacking though. I barely managed to stop the next attack, but I wasn't really focused on the attacks anymore. My arm had escalated to a 25 on a scale of 1-10. There's no way it wasn't broken now.

I managed to get a few feet of space for a second and I reached down and touched my left arm. Immediate pain shot up my left shoulder. I knew I had to end this fast or else I was going to be out of the tournament.

While my left arm was hanging limp at my side, I managed to go on the attack, at as full of speed as I could go, which was probably only 75% due to my inability to use my left arm. Still, I was faster than my competitor, so I got two or three strokes on his armor right away. He tried to return a cut, but I blocked it with ease and then went backhand, thrust, before finishing him off.

I quickly sheathed my sword, took off my helmet and bowed to the King.

After bowing to the King, I looked up at Annabeth and shook my head. The pain in my arm was too great. Now that I was assured of advancing, I knew I needed to withdraw from my duel tomorrow. That would give me two whole days to relax and let my arm heal. It would also give me a better chance in the knockout stage.

I grabbed my shield, which was still on the floor of the arena, and made my way back to the changing rooms.

When I got back, I immediately threw my helmet and shield onto the floor and unhooked my sword from my side. Lord Ares came running into the room.

"How bad is it?" He asked, while helping me take the rest of my armor off.

"Too bad," I said, shaking my head. "I'm not fighting tomorrow."

He gave me a look of pity.

"Ashton is fetching a healer now. They should be here in a couple of minutes."

"Ok."

I sat down on the bench in the room and held my arm. Two minutes later, the healer came in. She had long blonde hair and bright blue eyes and looked to be around twenty or twenty-one.

"It's your left arm, correct?" She asked.

I managed to nod my head. I couldn't talk with all of the pain I was feeling at that moment.

However, when she grabbed my arm, I swore very loudly. You could probably hear it out in the arena.

"Oh, this is bad," she said. "You're going to have to come to the infirmary."

* * *

Three hours later I was sitting in the infirmary alone. My arm was fixed but it was still wrapped in some sort of cast-like thing. As the three hours went by, I could hear the cheers coming from the arena, that's how close I was.

After I couldn't hear cheering anymore, I managed to fall asleep, since I couldn't do anything else for another four hours.

When I woke up, someone was lying beside me, luckily on my right side and not on my left. It took me a couple of seconds, but I realized it was Annabeth. I shook her awake.

"Annabeth," I said. "Annabeth, wake up."

"Hmm," she said.

"Annabeth, it's Percy. Wake up."

She eventually opened her eyes and she gave me a hug, carefully avoiding my left arm.

"Hey," she said. "How are you feeling?"

"A little better," I replied. "Do you know what time it is?"

"I have no idea. I was going to ask you that."

"Oh, well go and find one of the healers. I bet they'll know what time it is and I'm not sure whether I can leave the bed or not, so bring one of them back here so they can check on me."

Annabeth gave a small laugh. "Ok Percy. I'll be right back." She gave me a kiss and walked out of view.

Less than thirty seconds later Annabeth returned with the blonde-haired healer from earlier.

"So, Percy, how are you feeling?" The healer asked.

"Better," I said. "It still hurts some, but not nearly as much as before."

"Ok, that's good. May I take a look?" I extended my left arm and she pushed and probed until she seemed satisfied, but I wanted to amend my previous statement. Now my arm hurt a lot. "Ok, you technically should stay here for a little longer, but I can let you out earlier." She handed me a jar with some sort of green liquid. "Take this before dinner and then again before you go to bed tonight. Then tomorrow take it when you wake up, after lunch and then when you go to bed. That should exhaust everything that's in there."

"Ok, thanks so much," I replied.

"No problem," the healer said.

Annabeth and I made our way up to my room, but not before stopping by Lord Ares' room first. He asked me if I still wanted to withdraw from tomorrow's duel and I replied that I would like to despite how bad I wanted to keep my perfect record. I needed the rest.

Annabeth and I made our way into my room and I took my first dose of the green liquid, which actually didn't taste as bad as I thought it would. I set the bottle in my bathroom next to the sink and made my way back outside. I was thinking of changing out of my dueling clothes, as I still had them on, but Annabeth blocked my way.

"Come on Annabeth, I need to change clothes."

"No you don't," she replied, while grabbing my good hand and pulling me towards the doorway. "You look good in that anyway. Plus, I want to make it up to you. You know, for the broken arm."

"And how are you going to do that?" I asked her.

"You'll see," she said with a mischievous grin. "Now come on, we don't have all day."

And with that, Annabeth pulled me along the hallway, barely allowing me to close my own door.

* * *

**A/N:**

**So, what do you think? Interesting chapter, no? Give me your input.**

**With Mark of Athena coming out next Tuesday, I've decided to dedicate this Question of the Chapter to MoA. The question is: Who is the seventh demigod? Haha jk, we all know it's Annabeth. Riordan would have been stupid not to do Annabeth. Ok, for real now: Before a new book comes out, do you reread the old ones or just jump straight into the new book? Personally, I reread the old ones, but I have yet to start that for MoA. I should probably get on that.**

**Tell me your answers and make sure to review the chapter.**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hey, great job with the reviews guys, keep that up!**

**MoA came out Tuesday! I HAVE read it, so if you want to discuss the book, hit up my PM. I would be glad to talk.**

**Here is Chapter 14. We have only one chapter remaining after this one.**

**Anyway, here is Chapter Fourteen of The Princess and the Peasant.**

**Disclaimer: I didn't write Mark of Athena. Even I'm not that good of a writer.**

* * *

Chapter Fourteen: Annabeth POV

I pulled Percy along the hallway by his good arm. I still felt awful for what I indirectly did to him. I had gone up to my dad and thoroughly apologized, something that he accepted, along with our official relationship now. He also told me that I could continue sleeping with Percy as long as I left a note back in my room saying where I was. However, he said if I got pregnant before we got married he would do so much worse to Percy than what he did today.

Anyway, back to me 'making it up to Percy.'

No, I wasn't going to have sex with him if that's what you were thinking. I already had my dad's threat to worry about anyway. No, I was going to take him to the most beautiful place in all of London. I made sure Blackjack and Starry were ready for us so when we got to the stables we could take off immediately.

I pulled Percy down to the stables and got him to mount Blackjack with only a few questions. I ignored the questions, told him to follow me and took off. I didn't look back until we were outside the castle gates, but by then Percy had caught up to me, so there was no need to.

"Annabeth," he said, once he got me to slow down, "Where are we going?"

"I guess you're going to have to wait and see," I replied and took off again.

As I rounded the last corner, I slowed down in anticipation. Every time I visited this place, it always made me feel amazed. And it did again today.

The clear blue water stretched endlessly into the horizon. The sky reflected into the water, so you felt like you were standing on the edge of a mirror, except you could see the fish swimming and the plants growing underneath the surface. Along the sides of the river were trees like the kind you would see in Miami. They looked like palm trees, but palm trees do not grow in London. It was an amazing sight.

"Oh my gods," Percy said next to me, "this is amazing. How did you find this place?"

"I don't know," I replied. "I just came across it one day and it stole my heart and locked it away. I've loved this place ever since I saw it for the first time when I was seven."

"That's unbelievable."

"Yeah," I said. "Did you notice the waterfalls yet?" He followed my gaze.

"The waterfa-oh my gods." I couldn't help but laugh. Percy was standing open-mouthed at the waterfalls on the other side of the river. Lush green trees were behind the waterfalls and moss covered the stones in the river, so it looked like the river ran right through the forest. When I was little, that's exactly what I thought it did. The waterfalls came from both sides of the lush green trees, so it looked like the trees were an island in itself as the waterfalls surrounded it on each side. The waterfalls weren't that tall, maybe only eight feet at the shortest height and maybe twelve or thirteen feet at the tallest height. That didn't really matter though. These waterfalls would have looked majestic at any height, that's how beautiful they were.

"That's amazing," Percy said, turning towards me. "They look almost as amazing as you do Annabeth."

I blushed and punched his arm.

"Thanks for ruining it Percy."

"What?" He said. "You don't want me telling the truth?"

I blushed again and dismounted, grabbing the picnic basket and the blanket. I ignored Percy's last statement.

"So," Percy said after dismounting, "what are we doing here at dinnertime?"

"Having dinner," I said tossing him the blanket, which he caught easily. "What does it look like we're doing?"

He shrugged and set down the blanket, spreading it out to make sure it was even.

"So, what are we having for dinner then?"

"Lamb sandwiches, sweet corn and hand-picked apples," I told him.

"Lamb sandwiches? Now is that like lamb's meat in a sandwich or what?"

I rolled my eyes and ignored him.

"What? It's an honest question."

"What do you think the answer is?" I eventually replied. Percy smartly ignored me and we started to eat.

We continued to make small talk while we ate. After finishing the excellent meal, I soon found myself falling asleep on Percy. He was sitting with his back against a tree and I was sitting in his lap. We were waiting for the sunset, which would happen right over the center of the river, another perk of this beautiful place.

I barely saw the sunset. It wasn't too much later after the sunset had happened that I fell asleep. The next thing I remembered after that was Percy setting me down in my bed. He gave me a kiss on the forehead.

"Night Annabeth," he said softly.

To be honest, I was too tired to reply, so I just fell asleep.

* * *

The next morning I woke up and quickly headed down to breakfast. Percy was having breakfast with his sister and Ashton when I got there.

"There's the special someone," Ashton joked as I sat down next to Percy. I blushed and gave him a glare.

"Hey sleepyhead," Percy said, giving me a kiss on the cheek. "How'd you sleep?"

"Good," I replied, "but not as good as the night before."

Percy gave me a smile. "Well that's good to know."

I smiled back at him. "Yeah, so what are you going to do during the duels today, since you're not fighting?"

"Well, I was figuring on watching them with you. It's a good time to do some scouting anyway."

"Oh, ok," I said with a smile. "So are you going to watch them with me? Like right next to me?"

"Well, not for the first two," he said. "I fight either District 1 or District 11, so I'm going to watch them with Ares and see if we can get some sort of advantage, but it's not like I have one already. I'll join you after those two duels, ok? So save me a spot."

"Will do," I told him.

We finished breakfast and we went to our separate rooms. Percy came over to my room after changing and we hung out for a while before the duels. I managed to learn a lot about Percy. Not only is he cute, but he's smart. Well, battle smart, that is. He isn't really smart smart, if you know what I mean. His favorite color was sea green like the ocean (like your eyes, I wanted to add) and he has always loved swimming. He told me his mom owned a restaurant (which I already knew) and that it was very popular (which I also knew). He asked a lot about me personally and we continued to trade questions back and forth until we needed to head over to the arena for the day's duels.

Percy and I walked into the arena together until he needed to break off to find Lord Ares. I made sure there was plenty of room next to me for him to sit down after the first duels and waited.

The first two duels passed and I didn't really see any reason why Percy wouldn't beat whoever he faced in the knockout stage, even with an injured arm. Neither one of the two districts seemed like they were even close to Percy in talent level.

Percy made his way up during the middle of the third duel and sat down to my left. He wrapped his good arm around my shoulder and pulled me in for a kiss on the cheek.

"As long as my arm holds up, I'll have this in the bag tomorrow," he told me.

"Awesome," I said, wrapping my arm around his waist.

We remained like that until after the duels, where we went straight towards dinner. During dinner however, my father did something that surprised and embarrassed both me and Percy.

"Attention, attention," he said, tapping his spoon on his wine glass, "I have an announcement to make. Please will you all be quiet. Thank you." He paused dramatically. "Now as many of you know, I have a daughter." A slight ripple of amusement went through the crowd. Several eyes turned towards me. "Now what most of you don't know is that she has a boyfriend." I looked over at Percy, who was smiling, and I immediately turned a deep, deep shade of red. Lots of cheering and wolf-whistling went up. "Now I know that it's only a boyfriend and she isn't getting engaged or whatever, but she is our only daughter," he brought my mother into this, "and it is our duty as parents to embarrass her whenever possible." A small laugh went up from the crowd. "And, if so," he continued, "to embarrass her boyfriend whenever possible as well." I looked over at Percy, who wasn't smiling anymore. "Oh, don't think you'll get out of it so easy Percy. If you want to marry my daughter, you're going to have to be able to suffer the embarrassment that comes along with it." My dad smiled. He was enjoying this too much. "So now, a toast. To Percy and Annabeth," he raised his glass, "and the hope that your relationship is one that goes so much better than mine ever has." He looked over at my mom, who was now glaring. "Oh, was that out loud?" The crowd laughed. I'll admit I cracked a smile. My dad turned back to the crowd and smiled. "To Percy and Annabeth." The crowd relayed the toast.

I looked back at Percy, who was trying to avoid Ashton's claps on the back. We eventually made eye contact and I managed a weak smile, which he returned.

After dinner, I was walking with Percy back to his room. Our plan was to head up and change before walking back down to the dining hall to listen to a musician that had never before played in London. I was intrigued to see how good he was.

However, people kept walking up to us and congratulating us on our relationship. The first few were okay, but once we were getting stopped every few feet, it started to get annoying. It took us a half-hour to get up to Percy's room. He changed into a simple shirt and pants and we made our way to my room, again getting stopped every few seconds for congratulations. We eventually made it to my room where I changed into another more comfortable dress and then we made our way back down to the dining hall just before the musician started to play.

I recognized him immediately. He was the musician from Wales; the one who performed a couple of days before Rayne's birthday party. He recognized me and flashed me a smile.

I walked up to him and since my hand was interlocked with Percy's, he had to follow me.

"So, you followed my advice," I said.

"I figured I might as well try it, my lady," he said.

"Don't worry," I said. "Just play normally and you'll do amazing."

"Thank you, my lady. If I may ask, who is this?" He said, motioning towards Percy. "I don't recognize him from Wales."

"Well," I said dramatically, "this is my boyfriend, Percy Jackson. He's fighting in the Championships this year."

"Really? Well, any friend of the Princesses is a friend of mine. Nice to meet you Lord Jackson." He extended his hand, which Percy shook.

"The pleasure's all mine Master…" Percy let the sentence hang.

"Richardson. Alexander Richardson," the musician supplied.

"Well, the pleasure's all mine Master Richardson. I look forward to hearing your work tonight."

"Thank you my lord. Now if the royal couple could take a seat, I would very much like to get started. Please enjoy."

"We will," I said. "Thank you." Percy and I made our way to two open seats next to Isabel and Abby.

Master Richardson played for a good two-and-a-half, three hours and I stayed to watch the entire thing. He must have stepped it up for London, because it was even better than when I saw him in Wales. I gave Percy eight or nine gold coins and told him to put them in the case and he obliged. The case itself was already almost filled to the brim.

Master Richardson eventually ended his concert for the night and everyone made their way back to their rooms. I changed out of my dress and into nightclothes. I made sure to write a note and make it visible and Percy and I headed off towards his room.

* * *

The next morning the knockout duels were announced. The winner of Group A was going to be set to face the runner up of Group B and so on and so forth down the line.

On the one side of the bracket were Districts 1, 8, 12 and 13. Percy (District 13) would have to face the winner of Group A, District 1, in the first duel and then the winner of Group C, District 8 would face the runner up from Group D, District 12. On the other side of the bracket were Districts 2, 10, 11 and 14. District 10, having won Group B by virtue of Percy's withdrawal, would face the runner up from A, District 11. The last knockout duel of the day would be District 14, who won Group D, and District 2, who finished second in Group C.

After learning about the knockout pairings, Percy seemed pretty satisfied with his pairing. I watched his short training session just before lunch and then the two of us hung out with Rayne, Ashton, Abby and Isabel for the rest of the day.

Percy and I headed back to bed pretty early that night as he needed to get a good night's sleep for the upcoming duel the next day.

* * *

We were still sleeping when Lord Ares came into Percy's room at 8 in the morning.

"Let's go Percy. Time to get up," he said.

"How much time to I have?" Percy said sleepily.

"Two hours," Lord Ares replied. "But you should get dressed and head down to breakfast so you are wide awake by the time you enter for your duel."

"Ok, ok. I'll be down there in twenty minutes."

"Ok." Lord Ares turned towards me. "Make sure he gets down there, ok?"

"I will, Lord Ares. Just leave it to me." I turned and gave Percy a kiss on the cheek. Lord Ares smiled gratefully at me and turned and left the room.

A half-hour later, Percy and I finally made our way into the dining hall. We joined Rayne, Abby and Isabel along with Lord Ares, Lady Allyson and Ashton. We were served almost immediately. Percy started to talk with Lord Ares and Ashton, so I turned to Abby.

"Hey," I said. "I haven't really gotten to talk with you a whole lot."

"Well," she replied with a smile, "that's because you're too busy with my brother."

I blushed slightly but shook it off.

"Speaking of your brother," I said, "what do you think about all of this? You know, the Championships and all the attention he's getting."

"It's good for him. I mean, people obviously like him, including your parents, which is good for you. And it also proves the point that he is actually a _really _good swordfighter. It gives legitimacy to his perfect record. Well, his nearly perfect record."

"Yeah, but that's about him," I said. "What about you? Do you like him getting all of the attention?"

"I personally don't care during an event like this. This is his ground, not mine, so if he gets all of the attention, then that's fine by me. We're best friends, so I support him and he supports me. We have that practically unbreakable bond and nothing about attention is going to change that." She paused for a second, but then continued, "And between you and me, I'm my mom's favorite anyway, so attention doesn't matter."

I laughed. "Is that so?" Abby nodded. "I'll keep that in mind when I come and visit your mother for the first time."

Abby gave me an intriguing look, but let it go. The two of us turned back to the table conversation just as it was ending.

"Ok," Lord Ares was saying, "We should probably start heading back up to our rooms, Percy. That way we can get changed and then have plenty of time to get your armor on before your duel."

"Ok, that sounds good," Percy replied. "I guess I'll see you ladies in the arena then."

The three guys stood up and started to walk out of the dining hall. On an impulse, I stood up and caught up to Percy.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey," he replied. "What are you doing?"

"Following you." Gods, he was so dense sometimes.

"Uh, why?" He asked tentatively.

"What? Can't I say good-bye to my boyfriend right before he walks out in the arena? Come on Percy, this is the first time you have the first duel. There have always been either two or three duels before you. The one time I want to send you off on a good note and you're denying me?"

"No, no," he said quickly. "It's just that how are you going to help with my armor?"

"I'm not going to help with that. I'll leave before then. But I just want to walk with you for a half-hour. Can't I do that?"

"Uh, I guess," Percy said looking at Lord Ares, who just shrugged.

"Plus, I need some time to get back to my seat anyway."

"Ok, that's fine by me." With that, the two of us made our way up to his room. Lord Ares and Ashton decided to just meet Percy in the arena, so the two of us were alone.

Percy changed into a navy blue cutoff and his normal athletic shorts. The two of us headed down to the arena. By the time we got down to the changing room, there was twenty minutes until Percy's duel.

When we got there, Lord Ares and Ashton were standing there pretty awkwardly, so I took the hint as the fact that I should get going.

"I should probably head out," I said. I gave Percy a hug and a kiss. "Good luck today Percy. Make District 13 proud."

"I will," he said, returning the hug and the kiss. "I'll see you at dinner?" He posed it as a question.

"Only if you win," I replied. Percy smiled.

"Don't worry. I'll win." I smiled back and gave Percy one last kiss.

And with that, I walked through the door and headed to my seat, ready to watch Percy destroy the hometown favorite in District 1.

* * *

**A/N:**

**So, what did you think? Only one more to go.**

**Now for the Question of the Chapter (MoA related as well): Have you read MoA and, if so, what did you think or what are your impressions on it?**

**I have read MoA as stated above and I personally thought it was Ah-mazing. I will not give out any spoilers, but if you want to talk to me about it, hit up my PM. I said that before as well.**

**Update News: The final chapter of TPATP will be up on Tuesday October 16th. Mark your calendars everyone. Nothing else will be updated between now and then. I need some time to write my stories (and possibly a sequel, but that will be decided next chapter).**

**I will give you a warning. You will not like my ending. Check that, 99% of you will not like the ending. The other 1%, well, I don't know about you. Feel free to be mad at me next chapter; I'll understand. I will give you an insight though. Next chapter's question will be Do you want me to write a sequel? I can tell you that now.**

**Anyway, I've blabbered on enough.**

**Make sure to review!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hey, so I'm surprising you guys. Here's the final chapter. I couldn't wait any longer to update it, so here it is. Enjoy.**

**Here's Chapter Fifteen (the last chapter) of The Princess and The Peasant.**

**Disclaimer: Rick Riordan could not have come up with a story as awesome as this.**

* * *

Chapter Fifteen: Percy POV

The guy from District 8 slashed an overhand cut at me that I easily blocked. I had beaten the hometown favorite in District 1 easily in the first round of the knockout stage. The duel itself was less than a minute long.

I returned a thrust and then comboed it into an overhand. I was now facing the competitor from District 8, who had beaten District 12 in his first duel. The winner of this duel would go on and face the winner of Districts 10 and 2 for a chance at the reigning champ.

I turned my attention back to my competitor and deflected aside his thrust attempt. We continued to trade blow for blow for the next couple of minutes. This guy was pretty good. I was still much quicker than he was, but he was still one of the top five competitors at this event.

I was basically going all out, but not completely 100%. If I did that, I might make a mistake and I didn't want to lose on a lucky shot.

I finally turned onto the attack. I started with a thrust and then feinted a follow-up overhand, which I had done several times earlier in the duel. My competitor fell for it easily and I delivered a powerful backhand blow to his unprotected left side. I followed up with another powerful overhand and then finally disarmed him easily. Cheers arose from the north side of the arena, which was where my supporters were stationed.

I helped my opponent to his feet and we both bowed to the King. I looked over at Annabeth, who was smiling enormously, just like I was. I was in the finals now.

I made my way back to the changing room where I was met with Ashton and Lord Ares. They both clasped me on the back and congratulated me on the win. I took my armor off and laid it on the bench. My arm was practically healed now, so I had no problem taking off my armor.

At that moment, Abby, Rayne and Isabel all came into the room and I gave each of them a hug. Lord Ares told me that he would take care of my armor and the five of us headed out of the room. By the time we had made it up in the stands, the other duel was already over.

"Who won?" I asked Annabeth, who had waited for us.

"District 10. Took under three minutes. Looks like you will be able to face him after all."

I smiled sarcastically at that and took her hand. The now six of us made our way down to the dining hall, where they were serving an early lunch.

We ate a long lunch. Mostly we were just talking and joking around, but we did manage to eat lunch in-between. We were about to head out to walk around the castle grounds when I noticed someone I wanted to talk to over on the other side of the hall.

"Hey, I'll meet you guys out there, ok? I need to talk with someone first."

I walked over to a table full of Scottish people. At the table were eight people. A guy of around twenty-seven and a guy of around forty sat with their wives. Two other men of around thirty-five sat with them and a girl of around eighteen was holding a small baby in her lap. They eventually noticed me.

"Can we help you?" One of the thirty-five year olds said. His voice seemed disinterested, as if I had just interrupted something important. I noticed the eighteen-year-old girl was checking me out, but I wasn't interested in her. I had a girlfriend anyway.

"Yes, actually you can. I just wanted to talk with Lord Henderson. Is that ok?"

"Well, make it quick." Wow, this guy was a pretty friendly guy. The twenty-seven year old turned to face me. He seemed to recognize who I was, unlike the first guy. I extended my hand.

"I just wanted to say congratulations, Lord Henderson, for making the finals. Looks like I will be able to face you after all."

"Yes," he replied, shaking my hand. "Yes, I believe so. Well, thank you and congratulations yourself. I look forward to facing you tomorrow."

I thanked him one more time and walked off. One thing I did notice, however, was that he didn't call me by name, which was disappointing. I shrugged to myself. He would know it by tomorrow.

I was about to walk out of the dining hall when Lord Ares caught up to me.

"Percy," he said. I turned to face him. "One more thing. You need to find someone to introduce you tomorrow. You think you can do that?" I immediately had an idea.

"Yeah, I think I can get someone."

"Ok, just make sure to give them a paper with what to read before the duel tomorrow. That way they know what to say beforehand. Then they won't be surprised by anything."

"Ok, I'll do it after dinner."

"Ok, thanks Percy."

"No problem."

I walked out of the dining hall and caught up with everyone else. The six of us continued to hang out until after dinner, when Abby and I left dinner early. We promised the other four we would meet them later and we headed out of the castle. I had a single piece of paper in my hand. Abby and I had gone over it several times to make sure the information was right before we headed out.

Within ten minutes Abby and I were outside the gates of the castle and walking towards what looked like a small village. In truth it was the place where all of the supporters from Caemarfon were stationed for the duration of the tournament.

We walked around for a short while, but I couldn't find who I was looking for. I kept getting congratulated for making the finals and people kept wishing me luck for the next day. But I still couldn't find who I was looking for. Abby eventually let out a long sigh.

"Percy, just ask someone."

"Why? He's got to be here somewhere." Abby just rolled her eyes at me and walked up to the nearest person, which happened to be a woman of around forty.

"Excuse me," Abby said. "Do you know where Will is? Blond hair, blue eyes, pretty tall?"

"Oh yes," the woman said after a couple of seconds. "He's staying right over there." She pointed in the direction of a small tent in the center of the village.

"Thank you," Abby told her. She then sent me a look that clearly said, 'Now wasn't that easy?' and walked off.

I mumbled, "That's where I was going to look next," just loud enough for her to hear and followed towards the tent.

Sure enough, just outside the tent was a boy of around my age. We were around the same height and we could have been twins except for the fact that his hair was sun-kissed blond and he had blue eyes. He stopped what he was doing as Abby and I approached.

"Percy Jackson," he said, extending his hand. "There's the champion swordfighter."

"Will Solace," I returned, shaking his hand. "And you're just the man I need."

"Oh really?" Will said intrigued. "And what do you need me for?"

"Well, you've been known to have a flair for the dramatic every now and then, correct?"

"People have said that, yes."

"Well, I need someone to put on quite the show for me tomorrow," I said, holding the piece of paper out for him, "and I was wondering if you could possibly be my guy."

"Wait, you want me to introduce you tomorrow?" Will asked somewhat surprised, taking the piece of paper.

"I don't know anyone else that could do it."

"You could say I'm quite honored." He looked over the piece of paper I had given him. "Wait, is all of this true? Like you're actually a prince?"

"Yep," I said, nodding my head. Will wasn't one to get surprised by much of anything, so I wasn't surprised that he didn't freak out. That was another thing that I liked about him.

"And your dad is actually the three-time World Champ?"

I gave Will a smirk. "I guess you know where my skill comes from then."

He gave a short chuckle. "Yeah, I guess so."

"So you think you can come up with something?" I asked him.

"Yeah, of course I can. When do you need me to be done by?"

"Before lunch tomorrow," I answered immediately. "The final is at 2, an hour after lunch, so you'll need to be done by then."

"Ok, do you want me to check with you on if what I have is good?"

"No, everything's right there. As long as you say everything there, you'll be set. Just be good and put on a show. Think of it this way: Try to come out and surprise me tomorrow. If you manage to do that, then you did a good job."

"Ok, thanks Perce."

"No problem. Just make sure to meet me at my room before lunch tomorrow. Maybe an hour or so in advance. Do you know where my room is?"

"Eh, I'll find it."

I smirked. "Ok, thanks Will. I really do appreciate it."

"No problem Percy. And trust me, I'll surprise you tomorrow."

I cracked another smile. "See you tomorrow Will." I turned around to walk away, but then remembered something really important. "Oh, and Will?" He turned back around. "Don't tell anyone about anything on that paper, ok? It'll ruin it if you do."

"Don't worry Percy, I got it covered." He patted his pocket, where he had placed the piece of paper. Abby and I turned back around and made our way back to the castle, where our friends awaited us.

* * *

The next morning was filled with high tension in my room. Annabeth kept trying to calm me down, but I was super nervous. I knew once I got out in the arena I would be fine, but until then I couldn't control myself. Will found my room easily and soon we were all down in the dining hall eating an early lunch.

"So," I asked nervously, "you're good, right Will?"

"Of course I am," he replied. "Hey, why are you more nervous than me? I'm the one that has to speak in front of the entire arena. You just have to wave a hunk of metal around for ten minutes."

I gave him a look and he just shrugged.

"I don't know," I said honestly. "I know once I get in there I'll be fine, but until then I'm freaking out."

"Just relax Perce. If you just do what you have to do, you'll win."

That relaxed me a little, but not nearly enough. Abby, Rayne and Isabel all gave me hugs and Annabeth added a kiss before they headed off to take their seats. Ares, Ashton, Will and I made our way down to the arena.

I changed into my armor quickly and waited for the next twenty minutes before a royal official came to collect me. By this time Ares and Ashton had left to get to their seats, so it was only Will and I remaining. Will held out his hand. I gave him an intrigued look.

"I want to be the last person to shake your hand because the next time I'll have the opportunity to you'll be a champion."

I smiled and shook his hand. "Thanks Will." All the nerves were gone now. The only ones remaining were itching to get a taste of the action.

"No problem Percy. Now go kick some ass." I smiled one last time and followed the royal official out of the room. Will tailed behind me.

Lord Henderson and I walked out into the arena at the same time. A huge roar rose from the crowd, which was packed. There were no seats available. If you didn't have a seat, you were standing. I risked a glance over at Lord Henderson and saw he was doing the same to me. He looked pretty calm, but I expected him to be that way. He had won four of these already. As we passed by each other I gave him a small nod, which he returned. We stopped about twenty feet apart, me on the north end of the arena, where my supporters were stationed, and Lord Henderson on the south side of the arena, where his supporters were stationed. The King rose from his seat. The crowd immediately got quiet.

"Welcome to the final of this year's Championships!" A roar arose from the crowd. "As in previous years, we are sure to have a great final. This year we are to have a match that was supposed to be waged previously, but could not because of an injury. We are glad to see that the true winner will be established. I wish the best of luck to the both of you, and may the best man win." A cheer arose and the King sat down. I knew that normally the royal family was set to speak at a final like this, so I wasn't surprised when the Queen rose from her seat.

"For the first time in the last thirty years, we have a newcomer that has made the finals. That is quite the feat indeed." A cheer arose from the north side of the arena. "And we also have a chance for another first. No man has ever won the Championships five times, and never five times in a row. Will that happen today? We are about to find out." A cheer arose from the south side and the Queen sat down. I was prepared to get this duel going, but I was surprised when Annabeth stood up. Ares told me that she normally didn't speak at these finals. The crowd got quiet once more.

"The Championships is a tournament designed to find the best swordsman in all of Britain and I believe that it has done its job. Standing before you are the two best swordsmen of this generation and only one of them can win. Which one is the question we are all asking. Many of you are rooting for one person or the other. I know I am." She flashed a smile at me. "But the point here is to crown a champion, and a champion we shall crown. District 10, please introduce your competitor."

I looked over at Will as the other guy stepped forward. Will had a smug smile on his face which left me wondering what he was up to.

"May I be pleased to introduce Gilchrist Henderson. He is the number one student of the great Lord Ramsey and he looks forward to facing him in a couple of minutes. He is also the son of the master swordsman known as Henderson, who has taught several World Champions. As all of you know, my gracious Lord Henderson is also the 'four-about-to-turn-five' time defending champion of these Championships and he was the youngest ever two-time winner. And finally, as my lady the Queen stated, he will become the first person to win this event five times in a row." He bowed and cheering arose from the southern section of the arena. I leaned over to Will.

"A little cocky, isn't he?" I whispered to him.

"Don't worry," he replied, "I'm going to be worse."

With that, I let out a quiet chuckle and Will began his introduction.

"Behold! Before you is probably one of the best swordsmen in all of history. His name is Percy Jackson. He has not lost a duel in which he has fought in over three years, and I do not see that changing anytime soon. As many of you know, Percy is the boyfriend of the beautiful Royal Princess, Miss Annabeth Chase." He motioned and bowed towards Annabeth and my head shot up. I didn't tell him to put that in there. "Also, as many of you know, to enter into this competition you must either be of royal blood or have knighthood. Percy here is special case. He has both." Protests started to arise from all around the arena. "Hold up!" Will yelled. The crowd got a little quieter. "There is no rule that states the member participating must be from the United Kingdom, am I right, your highness?" Will turned towards the King, who was nodding. "Obviously Percy is not part of the British royal family. If he was, he would not be dating the Royal Princess. No, Percy is part of something better. In either case, Percy would eventually become a Royal Prince, whether it be a Royal Prince of the United Kingdom through his marriage to Annabeth, or his current state of a Royal Prince of the German Empire, where he holds the status of being third in line for the throne." A gasp arose at this last statement. "As many of you know, the German King Zeus Olympii has three children. Percy is not one of them. But Zeus has two brothers; Hades and Poseidon Olympii. As many of the elder generation might recall, and my lord you can affirm, Poseidon Olympii was an excellent swordsman and is currently the only person to win three World Championships. Back-to-back-to-back, I might add. I can see only one person following in those footsteps." He pointed to me. "His son, Percy Jackson."

He nodded at me and I took that as a cue to walk out to the center of the arena. I held up my hand in conformation. Only two people were truly clapping and they were the only two that knew my true identity before this afternoon: Lord Ares and Abby. The rest of the people in the crowd were hushed, not believing what they just heard.

I made my way next to Lord Henderson, who seemed quite shocked. I looked up at the King and crossed my arms, waiting for him to notice me. He eventually did and stood up quickly.

"Very well," he said. "Your competitors have been announced. Gentlemen, please take your marks. We want a clean duel here today. Good luck to the both of you. May the best man win." I bowed to the King and placed my helmet on my head. I tapped Lord Henderson's sword as was tradition and we each backed away. "You may now begin!" A cheer arose from the crowd as Lord Henderson came in attacking my left arm.

I easily blocked his first strike, but his second stroke was quicker. I still blocked it, but not quite as easily as I did the first one.

He threw a thrust at me and I deflected it before returning a cut to his right side. He quickly recovered to block my cut. The guy was good. He feinted an overhand and then threw in a thrust, which I deflected the opposite way I had the last one. That threw him off. I quickly got in two strokes on his armor while he was recovering and circled around to a better position. Lord Henderson recovered quickly and he came at me with a quick series of five or six thrust-overhand combinations, all of which I stopped.

He didn't stop there. I noticed this guy's strategy was all offense, as if he was trying to prove something by beating me quickly. I immediately changed my strategy. I changed to playing defense, letting Lord Henderson wear himself down, so when I went on the attack I would be able to beat him with ease.

However, after only a half-minute of this strategy, Lord Henderson figured out what I was doing, and he backed down the offense and started to bait me into attacking him back.

I eventually had to send a stroke at him, because we would have stalemated otherwise. We continued to trade strokes for several minutes, our initial strategies foiled.

When the end came, it came quickly. I threw a hard feint towards Lord Henderson's left shoulder, but then redirected my sword down to his left hip. My sword made contact with a jarring _crash_. I immediately drove my sword up on his now-late block, which threw him off balance once more. I finally came around with a rounding backhand to his unprotected side before finishing him off.

The second the sword hit the ground, hundreds of people on the north end of the arena erupted in cheering. I ignored them for the time being and extended my hand towards Lord Henderson, who had just retrieved his fallen sword.

"Thank you for the duel," I said simply. Lord Henderson accepted my extended hand.

"You truly are as good as they say you are," he replied. "I'm never glad to lose, but if I had to lose, I am glad that it was to you."

"Thanks, Lord Henderson."

"No problem Percy. Now beat the old man. Someone else needs to represent us for a change."

I smiled. "I plan on doing just that."

Lord Henderson turned and walked back towards his supporters, waving a hand in the air in response to their cheers. As he disappeared from view into the changing room, the King stood once more.

"An excellent duel, as expected. Your highness, congratulations on your victory." It took me a second, but I realized he was talking to me. "But you are not done yet. One more duel. One more victory and you get the opportunity to return to your native land. Will you be able to do it? Let's find out. Lord Ramsey, if you could."

A guy whom I recognized as Lord Ramsey made his way out to the arena, dressed in full armor.

"Percy," the King continued, "put on your helmet. Your duel starts now." I smiled up at Annabeth's dad and returned my helmet to its rightful position. Lord Ramsey did the same. "Very well. For the position in the World Championships! You may now begin!" Cheering arose once more.

My immediate reaction: Attack. Find out how good this guy really was. What I found out: Not that good. I was easily much quicker than he was. Three strokes found their way on his armor right away. I stopped for a slight pause wondering if this guy was even trying. Then I saw his face, which was covered in sweat already and I knew my answer. I wondered how he had ever beaten Lord Henderson, but then I remembered that he _taught _Lord Henderson. He probably had so many things up his sleeve. But that wasn't going to work against me. He didn't know what I knew and didn't know and I used that to my advantage. I never let him get a chance to attack me. Within three minutes the duel was over and Will was tackling me in the center of the arena. I was heading home.

I raised both hands towards the sky and looked up at Annabeth. She was cheering and clapping like crazy. I smiled at her and she waved back at me. Will then led me off towards the changing room. There would be a ceremony at dinner celebrating my victory. Until then, I was celebrating all I could.

When Will and I got back to the changing room, everyone else was already there. I had barely gotten all of my armor off when Abby tackled me in a hug. Rayne joined her. Ashton gave me one of those 'bro-hugs' and both Lord Ares and Lady Allyson congratulated me like normal parents would.

It took Annabeth less than five minutes to make her way down to the changing room, Isabel in tow. When she saw me, she sprinted over at full speed and wrapped her arms around my neck. I twirled her around before I set her down. We shared a kiss and I placed my arm around her shoulder. I gave a quick hug to Isabel before returning to Annabeth's side. The eight of us made our way up to our rooms. Abby, Isabel and Annabeth came into my room. They were all wearing what they would wear to the ceremony. I put on my red polo shirt and my white dress pants and shoes. Annabeth wrapped the white cape around my neck.

We made our way down to the dining hall, where the ceremony was set to take place in a couple of minutes. Annabeth told me that her dad told her that I could walk her in if I wanted to and I obviously agreed to do so. The other six made their way into the hall to take their seats. Annabeth also told me that I got to sit next to her for the duration of the ceremony, which we were both stoked about.

A royal official came through the closed doors.

"Are you ready to go, Prince Jackson?" He asked. Annabeth gave me a little nudge at the 'Prince' part, but I ignored it.

"Yes, let's get this thing started, shall we?" I replied. The official quickly ran to the doors and opened them wide.

"Please enter, my lord, and congratulations." I said a quick thank you to him and held out my arm for Annabeth, which she took.

"We are glad to welcome your champion for these Championships!" The announcer said. "Please welcome your highness Percy Jackson along with his girlfriend, Royal Princess Annabeth Chase!" Cheering arose from throughout the hall. I followed Annabeth up to the head table, where two open seats were stationed.

The two of us took a seat and the cheering quieted down. Annabeth's dad officially recognized me as the winner and that I would be the representative for the United Kingdom at Berlin in seven weeks.

Food was passed around and everyone was in a festive mood, even Lord Henderson. Annabeth and I left the party early and we walked around the castle grounds in the moonlight. Several people came up to me to congratulate me on the victory, but most of the people recognized that I wanted some time with my girlfriend and stayed away.

The next few days passed quickly. We wouldn't be leaving for another four days, so I had time to chill and relax for a while before returning to Wales. Annabeth and I spent those days hanging out with the rest of the gang and we were out late into the night almost every day.

One night, I was standing with Annabeth in her room. She was just getting out of the shower and I was about ready to head to bed. She came out of the bathroom dressed for bed and I walked over to her.

I had been thinking a lot lately; mostly about me and Annabeth and our relationship. I had come to a conclusion this afternoon and I stated it now.

"I love you," I said, wrapping Annabeth into a hug. She seemed sort of stunned, but she eventually replied.

"I love you too Percy," she replied quietly. We shared a short kiss before I broke apart. I needed to get to bed.

"Night Annabeth," I said.

"Night Percy," she returned.

I gave her one last goodnight kiss and closed the door as I walked out. Little did I know that would be the last time I would kiss her goodnight for a long time.

The next day came around. Annabeth had something to do with her dad, so she couldn't hang out with us like normal. I turned in the towel a little early. It was still later than normal, but not quite as late as we had been staying up in the previous couple of days.

When I got back to my room, I was in for a surprise. On my writing desk was a note along with a closed envelope, which was weird. I hadn't gotten any mail since the beginning of the competition, so I didn't expect any now. I wondered who it was from.

I placed my bag which I had been carrying around that day on the floor and walked over to the desk. The note was from Lord Ares. It was quite simple. It read, '_This was given to me this afternoon. You weren't in your room, so I just laid it on your desk. Hopefully that doesn't bother you. –Lord Ares'_

I placed the note aside and picked up the letter. Nothing was unusual about it. My name was written in elegant handwriting on the front, but there was nothing abnormal about the envelope. It was just a plain envelope. Also, I was leaving in a couple of days, so this letter must be pretty important. Otherwise, the sender probably wouldn't have sent it here to London.

I carefully opened the envelope and took out the letter inside. I started reading and nearly dropped the brief letter at the end.

It read,

_Percy,_

_ This is very important. I have not consulted your mother about this, but she will be informed as soon as possible._

_ You need to come to Germany immediately. Your uncle and I are not in good health. Sven is being doubted for his ability to lead and neither Adler nor Dieter have reached the ruling age as of yet._

_ You were only here for a month, but you managed to gain much respect throughout the country. You need to come to Berlin and Sven will be your advisor while you fill in for me as King. You would not be given the kingship even if I would die, as Sven would automatically take over. By then I would hope you would have enough experience to support Sven should the need arise._

_ I understand you are currently in London, so your travel time would only be three days. The situation we are in is dire. You need to arrive by the end of next week._

_ Remember, we need you._

_Zeus Olympii_

I noticed that he didn't sign it 'King.'

That was irrelevant to the overall picture however. I began pacing back and forth in my room. This was not good. I knew I needed to get to Germany as fast as possible. With the three day travel and the rate that the mail goes, I figured that this letter had to be around a week old already, which would mean ten days would have passed before I would arrive.

I thought about talking to Lord Ares, but he would already be asleep. Abby might still be awake, but she wouldn't be the right person to talk to because she had never been to Germany. My mom was two days away in the opposite direction and I would waste four, maybe five days trying to get her opinion.

I stayed up for another hour debating what I should do. I knew I had to be going by first light, but I couldn't wake everyone up to say goodbye. Too much chaos would ensue. On the other hand, I couldn't wait until everyone was up. That would waste too much time.

I made my decision and began to write. I made a quick trip to the jeweler, who miraculously was still open and returned to my room. I took out a new envelope and placed the letter I had written inside. I set the envelope on my desk. I collected my bag and packed all of my clothes into my valise. I made sure my sword was attached to my side and grabbed everything in my room. I left the letter on the writing desk and closed the door quietly.

I slowly made my way down to the arena to grab my armor. I was careful not to disturb anyone on my way down and then I moved onto the stables, where Blackjack was waiting. I quickly saddled him up and placed my armor and clothes onto their place in the saddle. Within fifteen minutes we were heading out of the stables and onto the wooden drawbridge.

I took one last look at the castle behind me. Everything was so quiet and surreal, it was hard to believe I was leaving in the way I was. Even the birds were quiet. They wouldn't be up for another five or six hours.

Subconsciously I looked up at Annabeth's room. I knew where it was by heart. The window was dark, as was nearly every other window in the castle. I turned back around. I hope she understood.

Blackjack and I headed off into the night towards uncertainty and unfamiliarity. We left behind a calm, content castle, where princesses and peasants slept soundly in the same majestic way. Within a few hours, both of them would wake up to find someone missing. Someone they both held dear, albeit in different ways. The way they react would be different for sure. How different is a question I cannot answer. I just hope that Annabeth recognizes my decision for what it is.

The right decisions are not always the easy decisions. I can tell you first hand that is a true statement. But like my father used to say, if life was full of easy decisions, everyone would win.

The End

* * *

**A/N:**

**There it is. TPATP is finished. What did you think?**

**I have updated/changed my profile as well as my website. Be sure to check those out.**

**The final Question of the Chapter (for this story anyway): Do you want me to write a sequel?**

**I'm sensing you do, but I need it in writing.**

**SOMETIME WITHIN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS I WILL MAKE A SPECIAL POST ON MY WEBSITE. IT WILL BE JUST UNDER THE BANNER ON THE HOME PAGE. THIS SPECIAL POST WILL HAVE MY DECISION ON WHETHER OR NOT I AM WRITING A SEQUEL. I AM NOT GOING TO TELL YOU WHEN IT WILL BE UPLOADED, SO CHECK EVERY DAY IF YOU WANT TO. I WILL JUST SAY THAT THIS POST WILL BE UP BY THE 23RD, NO LATER.**

**Finally, I want to thank you guys, the readers, for reading this story. I greatly appreciate any and all information you have given me and I hope you stay PSON fans. Now, with my final words, just like I end every chapter,**

**Make sure to review!**

**Thanks!**

**-Percy, Son of Neptune**


	16. Chapter 16

**Warning: This is NOT a chapter. This is merely designed to thank a few people who have helped push this story along as well as inform you, the readers, of some important news.**

**First off, this author's note is to notify everyone that has read this story that the sequel is currently out. You can find it through my profile or by searching for The Prince, The Girl and The World.**

**Also, my two other stories, Scars and Recognition and The Big Three, are in the making and currently up on my profile. I would very much appreciate it if you could check those out and input some ideas if you come up with any.**

**Before anyone asks, I will not be releasing a new story until I finish The Big Three, which I hope to complete by the summer, if not earlier. I do however have some ideas in the mix for future stories, which includes a re-write of my other, less popular story, The Hearth Is Born, but this time using Percy and the rest of the gang.**

**Secondly, the following people have been thoroughly dedicated to this story by reviewing, leaving comments, etc on almost every chapter if not every chapter. They also may have inputed a critical idea that helped push the story along so for that I thank them.**

**So now, in no particular order:**

**Percabeth lover 28 **(for being the first to review TPATP)

**Pokemonchen**

**I am Persues Son of Zeus**

**Arrow of Artemis**

**numbah435spiritsong**

**percabeth12141711**

**PurpleQueen981**

**The Goddamn Dark Knight**

**ChildofWisdom**

**annabeth the wise girl**

**sophie princess of olympus**

**laoibhseferry **(for being first to suggest a sequel)

**ArtemisApollo97**

**yanksrock615**

**ADayWithNoLaughterIsADayWast ed**

**raisa864**

**The Avian-Olympian**

**AtlantaJackson95**

**EkatAthenaWizard**

**Naguse **(for being the 300th review)

**And finally, all of the readers. Thank you all so much.**

**If your name isn't on the list, don't feel ashamed. I had to go through nearly 300 reviews to find people who contributed heavily to this story and I might have skipped over your name. Don't fret about it too much.**

**So finally, in conclusion, this is the OFFICIAL end to The Princess and the Peasant, so again I thank all of you, the readers, and I will end off like I do for every chapter...**

**...Make sure to review (the sequel)!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


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